Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): That's all right Madam Speaker. Look I want to pick up from where David Seymour just left off—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Sorry but it might be better if you pick up with the instruction to the committee if I could just recommend that. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The instruction to the committee has become a total irrelevance in the last couple of days. We've just passed provisions in this House to enable a select committee to do its business remotely and we've said that it's only going to happen when there is urgent business for the House to conduct when there are difficult circumstances for it to come together. Well anyone would have to be completely blind or deaf or unseeing in all sorts of sensory ways to not know that that's where it's all heading. So one of the statements made to the House by the Leader of the House was that when we get to that point non-essential legislation will be put on the back-burner. So this is one of the first pieces of legislation that would go on the back-burner. What we haven't heard in the argument for this particular motion is why it's so important. I'd like to know whether it is more important than the Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill. Apparently it is. It's more important than the Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill. The Government predicates its whole dealings with the public of New Zealand on the basis of wellbeing but the prisoners getting to vote first in the next election is more important than that bill. Then there is the Arms Legislation Bill—the Arms Legislation Bill. A huge amount of posturing from the Government about a lot of very honest New Zealanders having to turn in their hunting weapons etc. and being made to feel bad for even keeping the weapons that are legal and a huge amount of select committee process up and down the country and lots of public meetings but apparently the Arms Legislation Bill is not as important as the bill to let prisoners have a vote at the next election. Then there's the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. How many times have we had members in this House from the Government stand up and talk about pay equity and equal pay and the desire to balance that up across the workforce in New Zealand? But that's not as important as getting the parliamentary time cut down so that prisoners can get a vote at the next election. Most New Zealanders understand that when someone breaks the law and someone is sentenced to a prison term and the prison term runs across an election cycle one of the liberties that's lost is the right to vote. But apparently that right to vote for lawbreakers or for prisoners who are serving their time—and let's be clear people who are in prison these days have committed criminal acts have destroyed the lives of many people by those criminal acts and have put fear into the lives of many people by those criminal acts. This motion is to ensure that those people regain that liberty—that right to vote—while they're still in prison. It's very hard to understand and we haven't had one argument from the Government today or from the debates that were in yesterday to explain to us why it's so important that this House report back by 2 June on this particular bill. We know that if the circumstances that are prevailing in the country at the moment are exacerbated then a look at the Order Paper will see this is one of the first bills that gets sacrificed. So there is no need to hurry. The idea is that the victims of the people who are currently in prison and are likely to get the vote out of this—families of the people who might have been brutally murdered families of people who have had their whole lives disrupted by a criminal act of one person who's now in prison people who have to endure their own kind of prison because of the acts of those people—may want to come to a select committee and make their point. It would be hard for them to do it but they may want to do it. But the Government is saying Oh no. Let's whip it through." Even though we know that there is going to be difficulty with legislation in the weeks ahead they still want to have it back by 2 June because it is such an important bill for the Government.I think the waste of time we've got this afternoon is a disgrace. I might be wasting some of that time by standing here speaking but I'm not responsible for the motion being on the floor of the House. I don't set the Order Paper; the Government does. So on a day when we've had the exponential curve on the COVID-19 virus going absolutely north we are in the House talking about the right for prisoners to vote. I don't understand the Government's motivation—I really don't. I look forward to at least one Government speaker—one Government speaker—standing up and justifying what this is all about.Hon Member: Angie.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Ah we've just had Angie Warren-Clark who's just said that she will stand up and defend the Government's position. Well I'll make a prediction. That speech will be "I move the question be now put." or some variation of it. [Interruption] She's just told me I'm psychic. They don't want to justify it because there can be no justification for shortening the time where New Zealanders can exercise their right to come to a select committee and speak about this.What's also slightly ironic is that if it had been four months and two days we wouldn't be here now talking about it. But they also know there wouldn't be time to get it passed before the election. Well then that raises the question: what's it all about? Well it's not going to make that big a difference. If everyone in jail in New Zealand voted for Labour it wouldn't make that big a difference and where are the prisons located? Helensville—is that going to turf the member out? I don't think so. Selwyn—is that going to turf the member out? I don't think so.So it has to be about returning the right of liberty that comes with any law-abiding citizen or for any law-abiding citizen to criminals who are being punished for their despicable acts that are perpetrated not only on the individuals most affected but on the wider community as well. That is what's so hard to understand here.So for fear that I might stray from the motion and suffer the wrath of the Speaker I'll leave it at that and look forward to Angie Warren-Clark giving us the justification for the Government deciding that this bill should be considered in this very short time frame ahead of the Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill the Arms Legislation Bill the Equal Pay Amendment Bill and frankly an enormous amount of others on this Order Paper as well. What is the explanation?"