Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Oh thank you Mr Chair. It's a pleasure to take a short call on the Electoral Amendment Bill and to speak to these changes which the Government's ramming through this House in the lead-up to the 2020 election. I just want to take up from where my learned friend the Hon Tim Macindoe left off speaking about the same-day enrolment changes which the Government is ramming through before the 2020 election as he says with a particular desire to try and create some form of electoral advantage in the lead-up to the 2020 election.I was overhearing some interjections from the member for Mt Roskill where he was trying to tell Mr Macindoe to simply knock on people's doors. Well Mr Wood might knock on people's doors to do electioneering on election day but actually that's against the law. We can't go out there on election day and knock on people's doors. I'm not sure what some of his union mates might do but actually that's not what our job is.Election day in New Zealand is a day when all electioneering ends and when we go to vote. Every single other day of the year all 364 days—well actually there'll be an extra 365 days this year—we can add enrol to vote and every other year you can enrol to vote on any day of the week at any time anywhere; it is up to you. But on election day it is voting day. That is the day when we go to vote. And the implication of this bill is we are going to have up to a 10-day wait for the election results to come through—an extra 10 days that all New Zealanders will have to wait for the Electoral Commission to go through those potentially around 1 percent of people who didn't enrol prior to election day. To check their enrolment to actually make sure that they were actually eligible to vote and then to be able to process their votes will create a 10-day delay. And I think it's important that we actually question the 19000 who attempted to same-day enrol because I don't know whether there's actually evidence to prove that all 19000 were actually eligible to vote if they could have voted. Some of those might have been people on working visas. Some of them may have been under the age of 18. There may have been a range of reasons why they turned up to vote on election day. I think we need to even question that number and I'd ask the Minister of Justice to take a call to explain the evidence behind that 19000 to prove that they were actually all eligible voters. And I don't think the Minister will have that because they would've had to have gone through the process the 10-day extra-long process to actually check to make sure that they would actually all be eligible. And so you hear objections from people saying Well yes MPs we've got a responsibility to get out there and reach everybody and to make sure we talk to everybody that we can." and we do that. That's the responsibility that we take very seriously—to talk to people regardless of whether they can vote. I don't ask people when they come into my electorate office whether they're on the electoral roll. I don't ask people if they're over the age of 18. I talk to everybody in my electorate who wants to talk to me. I answer their questions. I explain my positions and I'm happy to meet with them. But actually when it comes to elections we have a responsibility as people standing for office to reach out and to engage with those people who have the responsibility and the privilege to vote for us. The right to vote is something which I take very seriously. It was something which has been fought for over many many generations and is something which needs to be protected and something which needs to be honoured. And I go back to the point where I started and that is we have 364 days or 365 days in a leap year in which we are entitled to enrol and we have one day in which we have the privilege and the responsibility to vote. And in the National Party's view—in the National Party's view—that should be—Darroch Ball: You've got a fortnight now; two weeks now.SIMEON BROWN: Well yes you have a two-week advance vote. Yep. You have a two-week advance voting period as well but we are able to campaign during those times as well. Election day in New Zealand is a very special day in that we aren't like some other countries Mr Ball where you can campaign on election day and all sorts of other weird and wonderful things. Actually in New Zealand it's a peaceful day. The campaign's over and we go to the polls and then that night the election results preliminary results come through and then two weeks later the results. Now we are going to wait an extra 10 days under these provisions and that is unacceptable for New Zealanders who have a right to know what the results are and who will be forming that Government."