Beaumont Carol: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11205. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour):I also rise to speak in support of the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2). As others have commented Labour is supporting this bill. I do think we should acknowledge as my fine colleague Phil Twyford has done that this bill—or a very significant part of the bill—is certainly down to John Banks especially in relation to anonymous donations. Most of us will never ever be able to think of anonymous donations in quite the same way again. I think Mr Twyford’s contribution very clearly outlined why that is.In general terms this bill will align or provide greater alignment between rules governing local body elections and those governing general elections. That greater consistency means a tightening-up of a number of provisions which have been outlined by a previous speaker—certainly the size of anonymous donations the definition of anonymous donations and the requiring of a third party who receives a donation onbehalf of a candidate to disclose the identity of the donor if known to the candidate and likewise the person administering the affairs of the candidate. All of these situations were ones that were called into play in the John Banks fiasco in the 2010 Auckland Council elections.So that greater consistency and tightening-up is certainly important not just as a technicality or for the sake of neatness but because we need to strengthen—and we need to continue to strengthen—the conduct of our electoral processes. We need greater transparency to ensure that the public of New Zealand has confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes. That is of fundamental importance. It is important that the public are confident in knowing who has donated and how much. It is important that they can judge whether or not those who are being elected are being elected because they have more or less money for their campaign because of the people whom they spend time with—whether or not they have rich friends for example—and whether that determines greater resourcing for their campaign. But it is also important for the public to be able to assess whether they believe that people are trying to buy influence from their political representatives effectively. Those are all very important questions. But we need to strengthen our democracy. I am sure every member in this House would agree with that.But there are some real problems that are undermining our democracy at the moment. There is a lack of public confidence and trust at the moment. Some of the things that have been happening in recent times have certainly undermined public confidence and trust. We certainly want to try to turn that round. I want to acknowledge my colleague the Hon David Cunliffe who had a member’s bill in the ballot about these very issues prior to the Government actually drafting this bill. Labour saw that it was really important to try to strengthen the controls around the local government elections and to try to pull them into line with those that apply in the general election. There is so much happening at the moment to undermine confidence in our democracy. There is much that smacks of undue influence. There are corporate cronyism moments throughout this Government’s term so far and I am sure people can identify them for themselves. There is much that removes the controls on the executive. There is much that is anti-democratic. There is much that removes the right of New Zealanders to challenge decisions in this House. I am sure that the Minister over there if he was honest would acknowledge that.So why is it necessary to bring in this legislation? Well as I said the 2010 Auckland mayoralty race specifically—Hon Craig Foss: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think I know what it is. The member cannot cast aspersions against another member in the way she did. All members are honourable members.CAROL BEAUMONT: Thank you very much Mr Deputy Speaker. The member John Banks and his conduct in the 2010 Auckland mayoralty race and subsequently are the reasons for this legislation. That confidence was severely undermined by the pretence around anonymous donations. Again I mentioned that Phil Twyford has gone through in some detail really to identify what that was. The police inquiry into this showed not that there was not a problem but merely that there was not the ability to pursue the matters raised. The technicalities that were there were what enabled John Banks to get off the hook so to speak. So I think that is really important for the record. Finally I would just like to say that there is much more to do to strengthen our democracy and I look forward to further amendments around electoral law. Thank you.