Faafoi Kris: Electoral Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Electoral Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee[Sitting date: 11 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16496. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana):Simply put the title of the Electoral Amendment Bill should be changed to the “Electoral (Diluting Democracy) Amendment Bill” because that is exactly what it does. The first substantial sentence on the front of this bill says that “The Electoral Amendment Bill seeks to make amendments to the Electoral Act 1993 to improve services to voters candidates and parties in time for the 2014 general election.” It is our argument on this side of the Chamber that because of the way that the Government has amended this bill since it first arrived in the House for its first reading it will in fact make life harder for voters in the 2014 election.A number of our speakers during Part 1 of this debate asked why the Minister responsible for the bill the Minister of Justice is making the changes around the enrolment confirmation card which most New Zealanders know as the EasyVote card. I do notice that we have got a new Minister in the chair the Minister of Immigration who I have found in the past to be quite reasonable in the fact that he wants things that we put in legislation to be evidence-based. I know that in other parts of legislation such as the breath-alcohol limit he has asked this House that everything be evidence-based. So I ask the Minister in the chair what the evidence base is for the National Party to remove from this bill at the select committee stage the EasyVote card which most New Zealanders have relied on for a couple of elections now to ensure that when they go to the ballot booths on election day—most Kiwis go to the voting booths on election day—the experience they have has integrity and is efficient and that they can exercise their democratic right to vote in a general election.My experience has been that when constituents receive their EasyVote card—or as it is called within the legislation the enrolment confirmation card—that is their tick-box to say they are ready to go and are enrolled to vote in the election. I know that if a number of people in my electorate of Mana do not get that card this time round because it is not being protected in this legislation they will be confused as to whether they are good to go and vote. Why would you want to cause confusion out there amongst the voters 6 months out from a general election if you want your democratic process to have integrity and to encourage people to go out there and vote?I do not expect to hear a response from the Minister in the chair even though I would like to but I guess the answer would be that the Government wants to discourage people from voting. You have got to ask what kind of Government that would be if it does not want people to take part in the democratic process. What kind of Government do you have when it discourages people through legislation and through mechanisms in legislation like an EasyVote card from voting? You have got to ask the question and the question has been asked here many many times why this piece of legislation has changed or morphed into what it is now compared with what it was at the first reading when the Minister of Justice said that the EasyVote card part of this bill was a key part of this legislation. What has happened between the first reading and the select committee stage for that to be removed?The EasyVote card is something that is pretty simple. It has someone’s name on it. It has someone’s address. As Holly Walker has said to help the people officiating on election day it has the page number and the line number of that page so they can be easily identified to go and vote. What has this Government got against that? If it has got a problem with that it needs to tell us. Nowhere through this Committee stage nowhere through the select committee stage and I guess nowhere in the third reading stage will we get a justification as to why this Government is diluting democracy. That is why I argue that the title of this bill should be amended because that is exactly what this Government is doing.Iain Lees-Galloway has raised a number of examples as to why the EasyVote card encourages participation. If you have got a strange-looking or strange-sounding name the EasyVote card can help because the person officiating in the booth or at the ballot box that day has to go through the electoral roll and recognise you. I know that in my electorate there will be some people who because they do not have that card and struggle with English will not go and vote. We need to encourage every New Zealander not only to be on the roll but to go out and vote. But this particular deletion from the bill which so far has not been explained to us will discourage New Zealanders from going out and voting. I do ask the Minister in the chair in the closing stages of this Committee debate whether he can give us some idea—evidence-based—as to why this is happening. The excuse of voter fraud has been bandied around but there does not seem as Iain Lees-Galloway has said in his speech to have been an outbreak of voter fraud in the last two elections. I certainly have not experienced it in my electorate. So can the Minister in the chair please give us a justification and an evidence base as to why this has changed in this legislation?In other parts of this legislation the evidence-based approach has worked. I did—I think comically—refer to a part of the bill that has been removed. That was around the use of rosettes on election day. There were a number of submissions to the Justice and Electoral Committee that I have read that said that bringing in that piece of legislation would make no difference. So I think that on that occasion the Justice and Electoral Committee made a very wise decision. It realised that having that particular thing in this piece of legislation was a silly thing so on evidence it decided to remove that. I think that is something that the select committee needs to be praised for. But there does not seem to be a very uniform approach to use an evidence-based approach to this bill when it comes to the removal of the enrolment confirmation card.Hon Maurice Williamson: How many calls have you had? This is getting boring.KRIS FAAFOI: I can take another one if you want Mr Williamson. Just in conclusion if the Minister in the chair could change the tactics of the National Party and take a call to justify why the EasyVote card has been removed maybe we will have some justification for something that the Government is doing which I think is really being designed to suppress democracy in our country.