Smith Nick; Williams PotoELECTORAL (INTEGRITY) AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed from 25 September.New clause 7 Gazette notice following a vacancy (continued)Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): Thank you Madam Chair. The point that I was making on this new clause 7 when the House was adjourned this morning was that it introduces an extraordinary situation where we have a constituency member of Parliament who's been elected by the typically 45000 voters in an electorate where that community has made a democratic decision about who is to be their member of Parliament and we've chosen to provide this Draconian power to a single person—a party leader—to override the wishes of those 45000 voters and dismiss that member of Parliament. That is extraordinary. That goes against everything that this Parliament over its previous 160-plus years has stood for. What this clause deals with is the by-election that would then result in that constituency consequential to the party leader exercising those new section 55A powers.So what the National Party is saying with this amendment is that the constituents in that area who are having their decision over who they've elected as their member of Parliament overridden should have to have the notice and the reasons for why they're having a by-election. In fact I'm sure members opposite would know that whenever we have a by-election many of the public say Well why? We made our decision. We've elected our member of Parliament to serve us for the three-year parliamentary term. Why are we being forced back to the polls?" So with this new clause 7 in the name of my friend and colleague Simeon Brown we're saying the Gazette notice needs to say who—who—it is that has used these Draconian powers to fire that member of Parliament and send him back to a by-election in his electorate.The second thing we're saying in this new clause 7 is that the reasons for that dismissal should be notified. If we look at the history of where members of Parliament have fallen out with their party leaders whether it be Marilyn Waring over the issue of the nuclear question Jim Anderton over an approach to economic policy—we can think of the Derek Quigleys or the Tariana Turias or the Hone Harawiras—we are saying that the electors in that constituency have a right to know why it is that they are being forced into having a by-election and for that to be included in the Gazette notice.I have to make plain Madam Chair that members on this side of the Chamber actually object to the provision. We say that when a member of Parliament is elected for any one of New Zealand's 70 electoral districts those members have a right to reside in this House and to continue to advocate for that community and that electoral district all the way through to the next election. We really worry about the change of culture that will occur when a party leader has a power to hold a gun to the head of that member and say "You kick up a stink about those West Coast forests or you kick up a stink about pollution in your local river"—the local member who's advocating for their community. They will face the threat from their party leader: "Don't you go advocating for those causes." That is why members on this side of the Chamber strongly object and object even more strongly around the issue of constituency MPs being able to be dismissed by a party leader. Our plea to the committee is that if we are going to go down this road then at least be upfront in telling the voters of that electoral district why it is—who was the party leader who made the decision to dismiss that constituency member of Parliament and what were the reasons that were given to the Speaker for that member being dismissed from the House?I do want to expand on the sorts of reasons for and importance of that Gazette notice. We know that the clauses that the committee stage has agreed to are most closely paralleled in the world by the Parliament of Zimbabwe right? So let's look at Zimbabwe and say "For what sorts of reasons have MPs been dismissed?" Well we know there is the example of a member of Parliament in Zimbabwe who raised allegations of corruption of the Mugabe regime. He got dismissed from Parliament under these provisions. So what we're saying with this Gazette notice is: shouldn't the electors of that electoral district know what the reason was? And if they were dismissed for raising reasons of corruption then the people in that electorate would be able to decide whether indeed that was a fair reason for that party leader to dismiss them.Can I give you another example Madam Chair? An example in Zimbabwe which has the same provisions that the Government wants to impose on our Parliament of a member of Parliament who dared to hold a press conference without the permission of his leader.Dan Bidois: Shocking.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Shocking eh? And so he got dismissed from Parliament. So what this clause would require is the Gazette notice to say that member of Parliament "X" was dismissed from the Parliament because they'd held a press conference without the permission of their leader.But there's a third example from that wonderful democratic Republic of Zimbabwe which we're following under this Government with this Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill and that is a member who did not follow the whip on the way he voted. Now that could be the reason that a member of Parliament has been dismissed and if we are going to be true to the claim from members opposite that we're going to have the most open transparent Government ever—and I'm not sure how you reconcile being the most open transparent Government ever with the Draconian powers that are being proposed in this bill to dismiss a member of Parliament but if you are—then at the very least that transparency should require the Gazette notice that my colleague Simeon Brown proposes with this new clause 7.So I do challenge the members of the Green Party who have said this bill is undemocratic who have said this bill is a threat to our democracy: at the very least will they support us on this amendment so that an electorate may be told why it is they are having an early by-election and why that member of Parliament has been dismissed? It's interesting that Mr Gareth Hughes has just indicated to me in the House that he's not going to support it. Here's the interesting part: do you know how many calls the Green Party has taken in the 11 hours of debate on this bill?Chris Penk: Three?Simeon Brown: Twelve?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: My colleague says "Twelve." I have another colleague who says "Three." Answer: zero. Not one call—not one call. So the Green Party members who claim that they are the champions for human rights who will go to Palestine who will go to Africa who will go to the United Nations who lecture people all over the world about liberal values and democracy will not take the time to take a simple call on this bill of which every expert says breaches the Bill of Rights breaches the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and breaches the United Nations declaration on human rights. And so I come again back to this clause and say: why would any member object to the people of an electoral district being honestly up front told why it is that their MP has been fired and why they're being required to go back to the polls?And here's the really important part: shouldn't the people in that electoral district know who the party leader is who has decided to veto their decision about who their elected representative is? Isn't it the right of those people whether it be in Pakuranga Nelson Waimakariri North Shore—surely the 45000 voters in that community need to know who it is who says that they and not the electors of that district have made a decision to fire that MP?CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Members I am going to give the next call to Simeon Brown but I do want to just remind members that we have had many hours of debate and some of the arguments and debating points that are coming up in the speeches have been well and truly traversed. So we are looking for some specificity around the Gazette notice and the Supplementary Order Papers if I could ask for members' indulgence. I call Simeon Brown."