Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): I'm thrilled actually to stand and talk on the Local Electoral Matters Bill. The National Party will be supporting it as you've heard going to the next stage of select committee. I put it to members of this House that really what we're dealing with is an evolution in the voting process to the next stage. We started off with polling booths and we actually still have those for general elections—they're still there—then we migrated to postal voting and now we are looking at online in the mix. Now in the middle of that we're not saying that it's one or the other; we're providing a series of options for people to participate in democracy. I want to acknowledge the Hon Louise Upston and the Hon Jacqui Dean for the work they did in the previous Government to look at this and if it was simple and if it was easy it would have been advanced further than it has been to date. As a former president of Local Government New Zealand I had many discussions with those Ministers and a fundamental part of that was actually around the integrity and security of the voting system. If we get it wrong and if there is widespread corruption or fraud in the voting system people actually lose confidence in that very same voting system. I agree with the member from New Zealand First the Hon Ron Mark that this is not a panacea and nor is it likely to dramatically change the level of voter turnout but what it is is giving—particularly young people—an option to participate in democracy in a way that they may be more familiar with. There is a risk of electoral fraud currently in terms of people taking postal voting papers. There was an amazing fraud or electoral breach really in terms of the Australian census. The Australian census was completely corrupted by online hacking right in the middle of when these two Ministers—the previous Ministers—were considering this. So as part of that it is wise to be cautious and we need to be very much focused on security. I also note that if you project out in 20 years' time the postal service—if it even exists—will be very different to what it is now so the electronic mechanism of transacting business will be very different to what it is now. This is a trial. It allows partitioning of districts. It allows wards. It allows age-related data to be collected. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.LAWRENCE YULE: As I was saying before the dinner break for those that weren't here this is actually an evolutionary process of change to go from polling booth - type voting to postal voting and now to include electronic voting in the mix. As I previously said international evidence would suggest it won't dramatically change voter turnout but what it will do is allow—particularly young people—an access system that's available to help them vote. Also I expect there will be further significant changes to the postal system so in 20 years I imagine that postal voting will be dramatically different to what it is now. That being said there are some future issues that I would encourage members of the Government parties to look at. One of them is the mixed-type arrangement of voting systems at local government elections. So there can be a different type of voting system for a hospital ward a different type of voting system for a council and a different type of voting system for a local board or a community board—often alcohol licensing authorities or trusts—and actually when people get their voting packs it is so confusing for most people that they don't even know half the people or what to vote for. So I would encourage the Government to look at that as a future work programme aligned to this bill because in my view there is way too much information there are actually too many choices to be made and people are either disengaged by that or simply don't vote appropriately with the power they've been given. For me that often means that either people don't vote or those that have a high profile get chosen because people can't be bothered reading all the material and when you get a pack in your voting thing that's this thick it is completely off-putting. So to the members of the Government and for members of the select committee while it might be outside the brief it is my view that if we want to encourage participation in local government elections we actually need to make it as easy as possible and the least complicated it possibly can be and I encourage the Government to look at those changes through the select committee stage. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.