McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): I stand to take a call in support of this Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill. It's a simple bill that's looking to reverse the waka-jumping bill that the New Zealand First Party pushed through in 2018 that's now called the Labour Party Act". We've got some quite interesting scenarios in play here and that encourages ACT to continue to support Dr Smith's bill. It seemed actually a simple enough position to take for ACT because we've been opposing this bill since it was first introduced in 1999 under Richard Prebble. We opposed it in 2018 as being unnecessary a backward step a return to the first nine years of MMP rule and really it's just a "Winston Peters No Mates Bill". The result is that we now have a system where if you fall out with your party your party leader can have you removed from your position. I've heard arguments from across the floor that regardless of that you could go and get a judicial review but my question to that is: would that occur before or after a taxpayer-funded by-election? And what does that mean for the people who elected the MP into that position in the first place—that according to somebody else their vote is now invalid? I refer to Duncan Webb across the floor when he said in his statement just before that MPs are put into Parliament by their party. Well I'm sorry I thought MPs were put into Parliament by the people!Now if an MP had won an electoral seat and runs again as an independent there will be a need for the people to vote those MPs back in again to finish their term and there again is where the taxpayer funding comes in. From what I have observed the public have been pretty good at voting out the people who don't serve their expectations. What should concern both constituents and members alike is that we are on notice really to be careful about what we say and what we think when our constituents are wanting us to tell the House what we really do think. Divulging what you think even if it goes against party lines would be dangerous because you could find yourself ejected from the House for doing so—ejected from Parliament ejected from your position as a representative for the people. It's not a problem for ACT Dr Duncan Webb; we're encouraged to say what we think. We're encouraged to have honest conversations. We work through ideas. We work through our positions. We are a diverse bunch of real genuine people who come here to represent the people of our community in New Zealand. And we are taught to think this way. We are taught to speak our views because we have a great leader here who has made sure that we have the ability to do that and to do it safely. The bigger problems actually arise in the bigger parties where agreements can be harder to make. Individual thoughts or actions actually could be cautioned and supporting your constituents could cost you your job. But that's what the Government will vote for. They will go against this bill to maintain the status quo actually at risk to themselves. And one's got to ask: how on earth did the Labour backbenchers support themselves being handcuffed? ACT on the other hand will vote for a full democratic process: our representation of the people. And in that sense we do support this bill."