Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Chair. Can I just start in my opening comments around the commencement date by saying that again the Minister in his last call—and I do want to acknowledge the fact that he is taking calls because no one else from the other side or from his team has taken calls on this bill. But he referred again to the fact that they want to protect and make sure that there's no distortion of proportionality in this bill. I've put up three examples to show that this bill doesn't protect proportionality and I'm yet to hear those issues be rebutted. So I'm just going to start with those opening comments around commencement and then I want to come back—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): That's not valid.Hon MARK MITCHELL: OK. I want to come back and talk to why the commencement of the bill though is very important. Why wouldn't you want to test it through a referendum? Why wouldn't the Minister want to test it or wait until the next general election?I want to give you an example of why this matters. During the last election during the general election and at candidates' debates I was challenged at every single candidates' debate in front of members of the public by the Hon Tracey Martin a member of the New Zealand First Party. She said He's a mere puppet of the National Party. If you want an independent voice if you want someone that will actually take a stand for"—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Caution about bringing me into the debate.Hon MARK MITCHELL: —sorry Madam Chair—"If the voters of Rodney or the people of Rodney want an MP that will take a stand on local issues then give your vote to New Zealand First. Don't give it to the National Party or the National Party candidate because he's a puppet of the party." So let's take that premise just for a second.Another reason why the commencement around this is important—and let's wait until the next election and let's test this with the people—is because the proportionality of our Parliament is established through one vote and one vote only and that's the party vote. It's not the electorate vote; it's the party vote. So that is the starting point in this party. The party vote: the people of New Zealand have voted and they've established the 52nd Parliament with that proportionality. If an MP is expelled from his party it's an electorate MP and it goes back to a by-election the party vote doesn't matter. It doesn't count for the result. The only vote that counts is the electorate vote. So there's a complete distortion immediately of the proportionality of the New Zealand Parliament.So I just want to hear a call. I want someone to explain to me and tell me how the proportionality of this Parliament is being protected through this Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill.Kiritapu Allan: Commencement date.Hon MARK MITCHELL: The other question I've got in terms of commencement is this: I can put my hand on my heart and say that the National Party will not adopt it here. It will completely reject this bill if it's passed into law. I'm on solid ground to say that because in three terms of a National-led Government with three other coalition partners as part of that Government we never introduced a bill like this—ever—and we wouldn't introduce a bill like this. In relation to commencement and why I feel it needs to be put off until the next general election when it can be genuinely tested is this: let's go to the next general election and let's see—who have we got over there? Duncan Webb who is an electorate MP. I'd like to see Duncan get up and campaign at the next election and say that he supports this bill—he supports this bill in its entirety. "What it means though by the way is that my party can expel me from Parliament if I decide to advance an issue that's important to my electorate. My party can expel me from Parliament."—because we won't be saying that. We'll be saying: "We completely reject the bill. Don't worry about it. If you vote for me then I can promise you that there will be an independent MP yes who is joined by a common set of values but who will actually represent you without the fear of being expelled from our Parliament."Now I'm very interested to see—take a call Mr Webb. Take a call and tell us that you'll go to the next election and you'll stand up there at the candidates' debates and you'll say "Sorry folks I could be expelled in the next Parliament because actually I believe in this bill." and that's why I think the commencement date for this bill should be at the next general election. Let's really test it. Let's really test and see who actually believes in it."