Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): That member the Hon Nanaia Mahuta was playing fast and loose with the facts and forgetting to tell New Zealanders that there are 15000 more people on the dole today then what there was with the change of Government.But I want to talk about how the Government is playing fast and loose with referendum and electoral law. A year from today the writs will be served for the 2020 election and we don't know how many electorates there will be. We don't know how many Māori seats there will be. We don't know what referenda there will be. We don't even know the rules under which that election will be held and that situation is unprecedented.This mess is part product of straight Government incompetence it's part product of each of the parties in Government trying to screw an electoral advantage out of our democratic system and it's part plain arrogance on the part of the Government where power has gone to their head. That is no better illustrated than by members opposite grabbing for Cabinet the exclusive right to decide what referenda will be held at the next election and what the wording of those referenda will be.Brett Hudson: Anti-democratic.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: That is unprecedented I'd say to my colleague—unprecedented since 1856. We've had 52 elections since then. Twenty of those have involved a referendum and Parliament and the public have had a say in every single one of those.Then let's talk about the Government speaking out of different sides of its mouth about the referendum. The Prime Minister says Oh the decisions on referendum are nothing to do with me." Well that's a bit of a problem Prime Minister when you've just introduced a bill to the House to take the power away from Parliament and give it to Cabinet that you happen to share. Then we come to the Deputy Prime Minister. I read on Stuff the headline in the last five minutes with Winston Peters saying there will be a referendum on abortion at the next election. Then the Minister of Justice says there won't be and then Tracey Martin also repeats that line.Can we think of a bigger mess around that? Here's the granddaddy of them: Tracey Martin came to Parliament last night and said you can't trust Parliament—oh you can trust Cabinet; you can't trust Parliament. Now what sort of disrespect is that for this institution which is at the heart of our democracy? Here's the bit I love: but you can trust Winston and Tracey on referendum with them on the same day she says she can't trust Parliament saying opposite things on whether we will have a referendum. It's comical. It's a train wreck. New Zealanders deserve much better.Then we look at the incompetence of the Justice Committee. Do you know the inquiry into the election is now on to its sixth chair? Six chairpeople have been rotated through that role. Do members realise they didn't start the election inquiry until 12 months and now they've got themselves into an awful mess.Then we come to the dodginess around electoral law. You see Andrew Little and members opposite should read their speeches from when they were in Opposition and I'd particularly invite the Greens to do so. They said electoral law changes should only be made after the Justice Committee. They said on electoral law changes there should be consultation with Opposition parties. I acknowledge Amy Adams the former Minister of Justice who consulted extensively with Opposition parties on every bill. Then members opposite say there should be a full select committee process on every electoral law.Here's the problem: not once not twice but three times the Government—New Zealand First and Labour—have completely contradicted those rules. They are playing fast and loose on New Zealand's democratic conventions. They are putting the integrity of the next election in this country at risk. If there's anything that is important in this Parliament it is that we respect our democratic tradition and those who say Parliament can't be trusted should be booted out of office."