Turei Metiria: Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I will take a short call on the Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill (No 2). The Green Party will be supporting this legislation. It is the second bill that deals with reforming the various electoral agencies. It makes perfect sense in the circumstances for it to proceed and we have no problems with it. We supported the first round of legislation on this issue and we will support this one as well. 
Other members have been talking too about the other electoral law that we expect will be available for debate later this week on the electoral financing system. The Green Party is very pleased to see that in that bill for example there are caps on spending by third parties in an election as there will be in the MMP referendum. The electoral agencies that are concerned in the bill we are discussing tonight will manage that process. We will go into that debate in more detail later in the week but for the Greens those are significant issues about the protection of our democracy. 
The democratic system that we have in this country although not perfect—and it will never be perfect—is one that attempts to provide the fairest and most genuine representation to all New Zealanders that is possible. It is a democratic system that we need to continue to improve to be honest about its failings and to be able to deal with the changes that need to be made. 
We know that in the next election for example there will be an MMP referendum. Legislation about that referendum will come to this House soon for debate. We see that decisions have been made to put a cap on the spending of third parties on the MMP referendum. We are very pleased about that. We think that is very important. One of the most important decisions that the people of this country—the citizens of this country—can make is a decision about the kind of system we use to elect our representatives to this House. Indeed a more important decision than an election itself is how we conduct it. 
As we look around the world we see so many examples where communities are stripped of their right to have a say. They are stripped of their right to fair representation inside their democratic system. They are stripped of their right to critique and assess whether their representatives have done a good job and to hold those representatives to account. They are stripped in many places of their right just to be represented—just to have a voice in a House like this that will speak for them and their issues. 
We in this country despite the flaws of our system are very lucky that we have a proportional representative system. That means that by far the majority of New Zealanders who vote in this country are represented by their choice of representative in this House. That is a critical step in the development and the growth of a changing electoral system and of a democratic system. 
The provisions of this bill are very narrow and I am certainly talking about the broader issues around electoral reform but I think it is very important that we continue to put out the message that this electoral system and this system of democracy—the Westminster representative democracy—belongs to the citizens of this country. They are entitled to be decision makers to have access to the best possible information and to have a process of information and decision making that is not corrupted by the influence of excessive use of money. 
There is a lot of argument about whether there should be controls on spending on elections and for example on the MMP referendum. But those controls are necessary; advertising works. It is a multibillion dollar industry for a reason and that is because advertising works. Because it works so well and can distort what is the most critical debate this country faces which is how we will elect our Governments and how we elect our representatives to this Chamber we need to make sure that the public get access to good quality information and that that is not distorted by the abuse and the misuse of money in the system. That is why we are so pleased to see that the Government has agreed to our proposal to have caps on the MMP referendum alongside caps on third parties in electoral finance law. 
All of those issues are part of the public debate. It is really important that the public themselves engage in those discussions in this debate. There was the select committee process and no doubt there may be other issues that get raised as a result of this legislation being passed tonight that will be discussed at select committee. But at the end of the day as I say any provision and any legislation that deal with reform of our electoral system are of critical import to the rights of our people to act as citizens and take responsibility as citizens for the electoral system and the governance systems of their country. We are pleased to support legislation that does that. Kia ora.