Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I mentioned in my previous contribution that I would be standing up to make a significant contribution on the Electoral Amendment Bill.Jono Naylor: We're waiting with bated breath.PEENI HENARE: Excellent. I want to support the members of the House who have talked about electronic voting. I cannot express just how much I was disappointed when the Electoral Commission decided to not put that on a priority list but I did have a think to myself around the Government's supposedly awesome roll-out of broadband. I wonder how the voters in Mitimiti might walk into the polling booth at Mātihetihe School—you can look that one up—go to vote and there is no internet connection. I just wonder how that might affect some of the advances in electronic voting which I think is the way to engage not only the young people but also those of an older demographic.One of the confusing things that I always hear about from my constituents who come into my office—sure there is a confusion about the Māori roll and the general roll. What is even more confusing is how a Māori electorate covers so many general electorates. One of my constituents who lives in Epsom went in to vote and was told that there were no forms there for them to vote for their Māori member and that they had to cast a special vote. I raise that case because I see in this amendment bill here that the ability to opt for the Māori roll is not a priority at this particular election. I would like to think that come 2020 we will be able to make it an option at each election for those who wish to to opt on—or opt off for that matter—the Māori roll. I think that is a broader step in tidying up what I think are some confusing or grey areas for Māori voters. If we can do that I think we will raise the number of Māori voters.We have already heard how our democracy is in crisis when fewer people get out to vote. With this focus around the Māori electorate option for 2020 I wonder—just as a question to the Minister in the chair—in last year's Budget $5 million was set aside to increase Māori voter participation. I just want to ask: where is it? Is this it—we are going to propose in an electoral amendment bill to simply tidy up or allow for a more regular opportunity for Māori voters to opt on to or off the roll? How is that going to increase Māori participation in the democratic process and in voting here in Aotearoa New Zealand? Five million dollars—I have not seen a strategy. I have not seen a plan. I think the only recommendation I have seen or heard is that polling booths should be on a marae. You do not need to pay $5 million to get that kind of advice.That is a broader challenge around Māori participation. I was disappointed that there were not many Māori who—actually I do not think there were any if I recall correctly—made a submission to the Justice and Electoral Committee. I will certainly be encouraging as many of my constituents as possible to make a contribution to the next bill.That brings me to my next point. I wonder why it has taken a full parliamentary term to get to this point. We are making changes some of them substantial changes to our election process—which will take place in September of this year—once again in such a short time frame and we expect voters to understand them. I am not saying that all voters are ignorant of the voting process or that it will cause a state of confusion and wide chaos but what I am saying is that we have had 3 years and have only just come to this point.I was one of the early members on the Justice and Electoral Committee and this legislation was the first piece of work that we entered into. That was over 2 years ago and here we are now with amendments that only look into 12 of the 28 recommendations—after 2 and a bit years! I do not know whether that is a process or whether that is a common occurrence when each election is reviewed but I am a little bit disappointed that leading into an election that is not too far away—on 23 September 2017—people are not more aware of this bill that we are proposing. They are not sure about where the future of voting lies.Just as my final point I want to touch on the comments made by the Hon David Parker around the IRD as a register of where our citizens are. I agree with that and I want to marry that comment with the comment around technology because the Justice and Electoral Committee in its review decided to have a look at RealMe and the process of registering for RealMe to be able to engage with Government websites with personal authenticated identification. We all had a task in front of us to go and register a RealMe account.Hon David Parker: Driver's licence.PEENI HENARE: That was harder than voting—that was harder than sitting your driver's licence. It was not easy for people to go down and get RealMe identification. You can go online and you can start the process but then you still have to go down to the post office to finish it to authenticate it. For the members of the Justice and Electoral Committee we all found barriers somewhere along that process. So I think that if we could marry the technology discussion with the point made by my colleague Mr Parker around the IRD number we will kill two birds with one stone perhaps.I want to close here by saying that we do support this particular bill but we are disappointed that only 12 of the 28 recommendations will be seen through.