Smith NickELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed from 18 February.Part 2 Related amendments and repealsHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): Thank you Mr Chair. Part 2 of this bill does two things of which I want to make some comments on in the remaining three-and-a-bit minutes that I have.The first of those is in replacement regulation 52 of the Electoral Regulations inserted by clause 24 and there we are making changes to the regulations and I want to emphasise to the Chamber how strongly National supports those. These are amendments about making it as easy as possible for our defence personnel serving in different parts of the world to vote. The reason National's—Michael Wood: You told us last night.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —so supportive of those measures Mr Wood is that the very people that are serving our country in dangerous places around the world championing the values that Kiwis hold dear of democracy should not be inconvenienced in any way in being able to exercise their vote. In fact our view would be that through their line of work and the risks that they are taking for New Zealand it is incumbent on New Zealand and our Parliament to ensure that they are able to exercise those democratic rights and that is properly provided for in clause 24 that makes changes around the voting for those members of our Defence Force.The part that I'm far less enthusiastic about is clause 19 and the changes that it is making consequential to the Government's decision and voting on the same day. That is not a change that was recommended by the Electoral Commission for the 2020 election; it's a change that the Government is making because it thinks it can screw the scrum a bit its way for the 2020 election. We know there are about 19000 votes where people have not enrolled on election day. The reason that National is nervous of the provisions in clause 19 is that it completely removes the incentive for people to enrol. Effectively what the Government is saying to the people of New Zealand is Don't bother enrolling you can turn up any old day you like and you'll still be allowed to vote". It will be a consequence of these provisions including clause 19 that over time the number of people enrolling will drop because there is no restriction or no requirement to do so.And we're also concerned about the consequential amendments that have the election writ day final conclusion of the election and the results announced being delayed by 10 days. Already we have a problem of too great a portion of the electoral cycle being consumed by election uncertainty; I already see it in the Government's eyes today that they are more concerned with re-election than getting on and governing the country and the concern that we have is that New Zealand has a very short electoral period—three years. That period has been further shortened in my period because we have not only the election and the results of the final special votes being counted we can have periods up to 100 days of which negotiations occur to be able to form a Government and that is just churning up an increasing proportion of the three years electoral cycle.So what we see in the consequential amendments in Part 2 in clause 19 is the Government delaying the formation of a Government by 10 days. Some people say "Well what the heck? What's 10 days?" Well actually the Government spends $1.3 billion per week. That's another week and a half of which you don't have an elected Government giving clear directions to the officials and all that Government is responsible for and that is one of the reasons that we are not supportive of the change the Government is wanting to make around same-day enrolment and voting. We think the Government has overruled the Electoral Commission on this view that they've overruled the practice in the sort of democracies that we would want to be associated with that don't allow same-day voting and enrolment solely because they think they can get some small electoral advantage by allowing that same-day voting and enrolment.So this is not the worst electoral bill nor the worst part that we have seen from this Government. It is the fourth without any consultation. The bulk of the provisions are minor administrative and supportive. We are particularly supportive of those changes in respect of the New Zealand Defence Force that I've already mentioned. But we are not supportive of the change around clause 19 and the same-day enrolment and voting and those consequential amendments."