SpeechHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Kia ora Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to oppose the bill. What we are seeing and the New Zealand public needs to understand is this is a personal vendetta by two members who feel that they have been personally slighted some 20-odd years ago. That is what this is about. And the member's bill ballot has finally provided them with an opportunity to take a dig. The New Zealand First Party does not believe that this is how this House should be used for personal vendettas. The purpose of the original bill—Hon Members: Ha ha!Hon TRACEY MARTIN: And what you hear ladies and gentlemen is the sense of entitlement that wafts away from Mr Carter and Mr Smith. They believe that they are elected and once they are elected even if they choose to deny the platform upon which they were elected you must suffer them. They will campaign as National Party members campaign up and down the country inside safe National Party seats. That is why there is such a competition amongst the National Party to get a safe seat. It is because you literally could put up a block of cheese with lipstick and a blue ribbon around it and they would win. That is because that is what they know to be true. They know that to be true. So what they don't want New Zealand is to accept that the New Zealand public votes for the National Party's principles and policies at that time not for them as individuals. So if they cross the floor if they decide to go and sit up in the back and stand for something else they are trying to tell you Uh uh uh! You elected me because I'm such a fantastic guy—I'm such a fantastic guy. So therefore you want me to now not vote on the policies and the principles that I actually campaigned on. You want me to be here and vote on my conscience." That is what those two members are trying to tell you.The member that put forward this bill the Rt Hon Winston Peters actually went out and fought a by-election after he was no longer in the National Party caucus and he sought the mandate of the people again.That is exactly what this bill is about. I would challenge both of those members to decide that that is the integrity that they have that if they choose no longer to stand with the party that got them into this place on the policies and the platforms by which they were elected then go back to the people and seek a mandate. But those two men will not. Those two men will not because they have a sense of entitlement. Once you vote them here that's it New Zealand unfortunately; you've got them—and you've had them for a hell of a long time unfortunately.So what we are talking about here—and it also completely ignores that we're in an MMP environment where there are list members of Parliament list members of Parliament that the National Party has that the Labour Party has that New Zealand First and the Greens have list members of Parliament who vote on a party platform. If those list members decide they're now going to be an independent what have you voted on New Zealand? What have you voted on: for that person or for the party that they represented? This was a move to shift our democracy forward. To align it with Third World countries minimises the massive experience—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell us a country that's got it that you respect. Tell us about the UK.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: —that David Carter actually has. He has minimised his experience. That is Nick Smith who does not like the truth to be told in this House. That is him trying to shout me down New Zealand.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell me a democracy that you respect that's got it.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: There he goes again. Understand New Zealand this is not about your democracy; this is about a personal vendetta by Nick Smith and David Carter. That's what this is about. But New Zealand First will oppose it because democracies have to grow and live.I say to the Green Party that there is a time and a place to stand up and keep one's word. There is a time and a place to acknowledge commitments made and stick with them and I'll be interested to see later tonight whether the Green Party has the integrity to vote their word as opposed to deciding in the final days of a Parliament that they don't need a relationship any more going forward that they don't need to keep an agreement or a word given and we will see what the Green Party does with regard to their integrity. We do not support the bill."