Pillay Lynne: Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Pillay Lynne: Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7465] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) 
: 
 I am surprised that Paul Quinn took such a short call. I nearly was not ready to take my call. 
Chris Hipkins 
: It was all he was capable of! 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: I find that Paul Quinn usually has quite a bit to say so it was a bit disappointing that he took such a short call. 
In opening I want to recognise and talk about what Lianne Dalziel referred to in her speech and that is the diversity of our Parliament. A decade ago—it was even more so two decades ago—our communities were not reflected in Parliament. It is fair to say that Parliament is now far more representative of the diverse communities we have in New Zealand—although I have to acknowledge that some of those members are not sitting on our side of the House. 
It is also important to acknowledge our democracy. Many MPs in this House have assisted in elections—I do not know whether Gerry Brownlee has—in a number of other countries where democracy is not so open accessible or safe. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I’ve never been one for a junket. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: I find that to be a very flippant remark. That member should be ashamed of himself. That was a very flippant thing to say. 
In New Zealand we have the ability for all New Zealanders to freely engage in elections without fear of retribution and without fear for one’s life. We can all recall—Mr Brownlee might be flippant about it but this side of the House certainly is not—that it was empowering and wonderful to see the indigenous people of South Africa attain their right to vote. Many voters walked tens of kilometres in order to celebrate having that right. That is something that we in New Zealand hold dear and it is something we should celebrate. 
When I attend a citizenship ceremony I know that many new citizens from other countries find it very empowering. One of the first things they say to me as new citizens or as permanent residents is that it is great to have the right to vote. It is indeed the right of all permanent residents as long as they have lived here for the right amount of time to vote in New Zealand and it saddens me when people do not use that right. When we are out and about in communities we find many people who say they did not participate in the previous election. They did not participate—and indeed they are not happy with the outcome. 
I want to speak about some of the new initiatives and I will acknowledge some of the agencies in terms of the 2009 New Zealand Effective Advertising Award. I have the document here to show to members of the House. Most members probably received it only a day or two ago. It tells us about the award for excellent advertising throughout New Zealand—obviously before the “plain English” airbrushed Bill English advertisement came on. This document covers 2009. Members opposite are probably thinking about what this has to do— 
Simon Bridges 
: We are. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: I dare say that the Assistant Speaker is as well. Let me enlighten members. 
I note that that the electoral enrolment campaign attained a silver award for the campaign about easy voting. We all remember the little orange man on our television screens. He encouraged people to vote and showed people the easy ways to vote. That campaign won an award. I congratulate the Electoral Enrolment Centre because it owned that campaign in terms of making sure that those advertisements were on air. I hasten to add—and I know that Paul Quinn will find this extraordinary—that it achieved a higher award and was on a par with a number of others such as the Saatchi and Saatchi “Irresistible to Men since 1889” campaign which related to the DB Breweries advertisement with the women and the blokes and all that sort of thing. That is more in Paul Quinn’s line. 
Paul Quinn 
: Commonly known as the Tui ad. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: No it was not known as the Tui ad; it was the DB ad. But I want to say that promoting a very serious subject to attain a silver award is quite an achievement so I say “Well done!” to the Electoral Enrolment Centre. 
I return to the purpose of the bill and in doing so I recognised the Electoral Enrolment Centre. The bill is about establishing a new independent Crown entity. I congratulate the Government because this was as David Parker said earlier in the House today done in consultation with the Labour Party and indeed with other parties in the House—I would hope—to ensure a smooth transition. I will talk Justice and Electoral Committee which will be chaired by Chester Borrows later in my speech. 
I know that the three agencies—the Chief Electoral Officer the Electoral Commission and the Chief Registrar of Electors—came to the Justice and Electoral Committee before the last election and talked about a process to amalgamate the three agencies so that a far more user-friendly service would be delivered and so that issues could be worked through. As I think Lianne Dalziel said we do not often get the opportunity to do this. I congratulate the Government on this bill because it does do that and it does so in quite a sensible way by doing it in two stages. 
When the amalgamation of these three agencies has been looked at we have seen that there is some complexity around it. It is really important to do it in such a way that it does not disrupt democracy and so that at the end of the process we have a transparent effective independent agency. 
I note that the new body will be called the Electoral Commission again and that could create a little bit of confusion but we can look at that in the Justice and Electoral Committee and I dare say there will be some submissions on that. Bringing together two of the agencies in the first year will bring some stability in the first instance. Then the following year the third agency can be brought in. 
We again need to stress that the new agency will be independent. As I said before democracy is something we all celebrate in this country. It is something that is a right but indeed if we compare ourselves with other countries not too far away we see that it is also a privilege that many many citizens in other countries do not enjoy. Democracy is something we should all hold dear. 
I am very happy—and we are often not as happy as this in Opposition—to support this bill. I look forward to it coming to the Justice and Electoral Committee where I know we will have excellent submissions on it. I know that we will devote appropriate time to considering the bill very carefully and we will return some very good recommendations to this House. Thank you very much.