Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill. I just want to pick up on what the Minister was telling us regarding the issue of retrospectivity. I think she really just touched on the issue of retrospectivity and sort of brushed over it to try and excuse the Government for what they are doing here by passing legislation which has retrospective effect in New Zealand.Retrospective legislation should be used at the very very very last resort not on something—Hon Member: Not on electoral law.SIMEON BROWN: Exactly—not on electoral law and something which is to do with democracy. So the justification that we were given by the Minister on why retrospectivity in this case is justified is because it avoids community division. Well this is the redefinition of democracy—it's now called community division". I find that absolutely astounding—that we've had a Minister come down here on to the floor of this Chamber and try to redefine democracy as community division. And the reason and the rationale for passing legislation through this Parliament which retrospectively takes away the rights of New Zealanders to use what the law says—they can put forward a petition and have a referendum a democratic referendum and they've renamed that as "community division". I think that New Zealanders watching at home—and I know there are many New Zealanders watching at home—will be very very shocked that that is how this Government treats them and their democratic rights under the law. I think that's absolutely astounding and speaks to the heart of this Government and the shonky process that this bill has had right from day one. It wasn't even put on the manifesto of the Labour Party when they took to the election. I think that's absolutely shocking. And that's another reason why this commencement clause—if this Government is going to be true to the democratic institutions and the processes of Parliament this clause must be amended so that it has a prospective effect not a retrospective effect.That's why I'm very supportive of the amendment by my colleague the Hon Paul Goldsmith which says that the Act does not come into force until 31 December 2023. I would be happy with anything which says basically "This legislation doesn't come into effect until after the next local government elections." That's what the principle should effectively be. Ideally it should be that this should have been taken to the public and the public should have known what parties were going to be putting forward in the election and what legislation they were going to pass in their Parliament if they were elected.But the next best is to essentially say well this is going to come into effect after the next local body elections so that the local body elections can debate these issues can have a discussion around do the candidates—the people going for those roles—support Māori wards or do they not and the public can then have their say and vote through that mechanism. But no. The Government has decided that actually that process would cause community division. That would be divisive and that would mean that by taking away people's democratic rights we can reduce some of that community division—i.e. democracy—and somehow have a more peaceful and united New Zealand where everyone gets along.Well I'm sorry but actually our democracy—sometimes people have different perspectives in our democracy. Sometimes people disagree. Sometimes people disagree very passionately in our democracy and that's part of what it is to live in a free and democratic society—a liberal democracy. I might not agree with you but I can still sit here and we can discuss it and we can debate it and sometimes it will be quite hot and it will be very excitable and it will be tough but we should have those discussions. But no the Government has decided that we're going to label those discussions as "community division" because this Government would rather divide and divide New Zealanders rather than actually allow New Zealanders to have their say in a free and democratic society.So I will be proudly supporting the amendment by my colleague the Hon Paul Goldsmith—excellent amendment—because this legislation must be prospective not retrospective and that amendment says the Act will come into force on 31 December 2023 which gives effect to that. That's what this Government should be supporting as well. Thank you Madam Chair."