Nash Stuart; Williams PotoPart 4 Enabling electronic licences and electronic votingHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Madam Chair Williams. I would like to talk about clause 81. What this is about is this is enabling electronic licences and electronic voting. This is what Part 4 is about. These are amendments to the Conservation Act 1987.I can't quite draw a bow between electronic licences and electronic voting and the repeal of these two sections in the Conservation Act and let me tell you why. What section 26N in the Conservation Act is about is transitional councils. Section 26N in the Conservation Act says The Minister shall by notice in the Gazette establish—(a) a Transitional New Zealand Fish and Game Council; and (b) a Transitional Fish and Game Council for each region defined under section [of the Act]." It talks about the transitional council and what it's there for and how it operates.Section 26O outlines the functions and powers of transitional councils. The only thing in this that I find any reference to in "Enabling electronic licenses and electronic voting" actually is in section 26O(3) where it talks about "Without limiting the generality of subsection (2) each Transitional Fish and Game Council shall—(a) conduct a postal ballot for the first election of members of the Fish and Game Council for [the] region".Now I get that. I mean we're moving forward and a lot of what we're talking about here is moving from postal to electronic voting and this is what this whole thing was supposed to be about. But why are we in this bill—unless I'm reading the wrong piece of legislation here; we are talking about the Conservation Act—moving transitional councils out of Fish & Game councils or moving the ability for Fish & Game councils to actually appoint a transitional council? I have absolutely no idea. How does this fit into the bill?I've been in this House long enough to know that often in these bills you sneak certain things in because it's the right thing to do or something's outdated or there's no other Act that is in fact good enough or relevant enough. But this is totally outside the relevance of what the Electronic Interactions Reform Bill is about and I don't know how it has been stuck in there.The other thing that concerns me—and I don't know who was on the select committee but I wasn't—is that it talks about the fact that "Transitional Fish and Game Councils concerned shall engage the Department for a period of not less than 6 months on terms and conditions [that must] be mutually agreed to manage—(a) the area formerly known as the Rotorua Acclimatisation District (except those parts that constitute the Taupo Fishery in that District); and (b) the area formerly known as the Southern Lakes Acclimatisation District."Again I'm not too sure if the area formerly known as the Southern Lakes Acclimatisation District still exists. It may well but at some point in time in the conservation legislation we believed that it was necessary but it's not even talked about. We're just getting rid of this in this bill—in an electronic voting bill? Where is the relevance here? Minister I'm hoping that you can answer this and what I'm really hoping about—and I've seen enough of the former Government do this in my time. What happens is there's something they want to sneak through under the cover of darkness hoping—not you Madam Chair the former Government the former National Government—that no one's going to notice; hoping that no one's going to notice it'll go through the select committee and no one will submit on it because they're just not expecting it.So I have a couple of questions. The first question is: why are we getting rid of transitional councils from Fish & Game? Is there no longer a need for a transitional council? Is there never a time when a transitional council may be needed in the Fish and Game space? Again if we go to clause 82(2) it repeals section 26Z(2). Section 26Z(2) again talks about transitional councils—so we're doing away with them. We're doing away with transitional Fish & Game councils. What's that about and what is the relevance of that to this bill?The other thing I'd like to talk about is the Wildlife Act. Now a lot of Subpart 2 is amendments to the Wildlife Act 1953. Again maybe I'm reading this legislation wrong maybe it's been so long but one of them for example—clause 86(2) talks about "In section 16(3)(c) before 'licenses' insert 'game'." I'm looking at 16(3) and what it actually says here is "repealed by section 5(2) of the Wildlife Amendment Act 1996". There's no 16(3)(c) here. Again maybe I'm looking at it wrong—[Time expired]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Just before I call the Hon Carmel Sepuloni I just need to put the question again. The question is that Part 4 stand part."