Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Civil Defence): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. I rise to oppose this bill on behalf of the Labour Party. You know the phrase that always comes to mind when I think about democracy and in particular in the build up to this year's election is Let's keep moving." We're very proud of our record in terms of how we uphold our democracy how we've made positive changes to our democracy. In the time that I've been here which is just a minor six years I've managed and been able to witness the changing of not only democracy but more importantly the public mood that sees us actually enforce and change legislation and change policy to make sure that our democracy best reflects our public.Now I'm a little concerned at some of the comments made from the other side of the House which as I understand it are bending the truth or are so far from the truth that it's not even funny. The notion put across from the other side of the House is that colleagues are bound to their parties they're bonded to their parties and they give up their democratic right simply to be a part of a party. It's not true. It's not true. One of the great things about our democracy as a member of the public or a citizen of this country is we have the opportunity and the ability to join a political party. We're not forced into it. We're certainly not grabbed by the scruff of your neck and dragged into any kind of party meeting nor are you bonded to that party for any particular sum of money—that's been indicated in tonight's debate. But of course you sign up to a party because you believe in principles. You believe in what they stand for and that's why you do that. And by the same right as you having the ability to sign up to a party you also have just as equal a right to leave that party. If you choose not to stand for their principles if you believe that their direction isn't in your best interests or the interests of your community you have the choice to do that.What this bill sets out to do is repeal some good work. I've heard it this evening in the debate. I also heard it in the valedictory speeches earlier this evening where they said that only robust debate can make for good policy and good legislation. It's been clear that the bill this particular bill and its intention to repeal the legislation that's already been passed—it went through significant debate. In fact I recall hours and hours in this House debating the original amendment bill and I was confident that through that robust debate we came to a better place.Now it's been mentioned about the Māori Party and how the Hon Dame Tariana Turia crossed the floor and the rest is history. Now it's clear and I'm quite confident that the mechanisms in the legislation actually allow for you to disagree. What it did do was—and Tariana Turia proved it. She went across the floor. She clearly disagreed with the stance of her party and she did that and she was able to do that. The Māori Party was formed and the rest is history. But any kind of inference from that side of the House that says that people can be fired by their leader I think is just absolute rubbish and scaremongering. I'm confident that the mechanisms in the legislation—and Mr Greg O'Connor has already covered this and says "Just because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed doesn't give you the power to sack somebody." It talks about having a caucus. It talks about having agreement even from that member who is in disagreement with their party.I'm confident that this particular bill actually takes us backwards. It takes us backwards. As I've mentioned in the six years of my time here there have been a number of recommendations from the Electoral Commission that have seen an improvement in our democracy and I'm proud that on this side of the House as a Government we've forced forward on many of those issues. In fact coming up in the election on 19 September the fact that early voting the fact that you can vote in places where people actually go to like supermarkets the fact that you can actually enrol on the day of voting I think is absolutely fantastic for our democracy and makes sure that our democracy is stronger moving into the future. Any reference of likening us to Third World countries I think is gross scaremongering and that's why on this bill I can't support it."