McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): We've often heard members of this House speak on issues like that. I'm glad the debate has been respectful. I want to start my contribution by saying I with many others of this Parliament believe every citizen in this country is equal that laws should apply to all that we should respect the property rights of all that Treaty settlements should be full and final—including the apology that comes with them—and elections should always be fair democratic and proportional. Last year the Government brought a bill before Parliament that said that it would make a decision to allow councils to decide how local government would arrange itself. They said at the time that the current system was not fair to Māori and there were few Māori wards. They didn't trust New Zealanders to say actually what we will do is allow everybody to have a say on this to make it fair irrespective of the type of ward you may want in a council area or no wards. Everybody will have a say. And they brought the legislation before Parliament and they rushed it through very very quickly with only weeks actually in the select committee for New Zealanders to have a say before it was pushed through because they said it needed to enter into law last year before the elections this year. We at the time opposed that in the National Party and said actually we do support Māori wards and we will fix it so that local people can have a say because it is important that local voters—all of them every single one of them that wants to vote—can have a say on important issues like this. Unfortunately because the legislation last year gave that responsibility to councils alone all over the country the councils have been using the normal system they would to talk to voters and then often behind closed doors come up with an arrangement that they believed was fair under the guidance and the framework and the law set by this Parliament so that every council district in the country would be able to use the criteria to make sure that the election was fair and proportionate. Unfortunately the proposal brought to this House by the Rotorua Lakes Council does not do that. It is as we have heard earlier outside the law that was passed last year so Rotorua itself needs an extra law just for them. Rotorua is a unique place but in as far as the way that we elect our councillors and how that is structured every part of New Zealand should be the same so that we have a level and equal playing field. I support Māori wards as a voter on council elections locally but what this does is actually innately unfair in the way that it has been structured because when members opposite are talking about co-governance—and we need to be very clear; this is what this proposal is—last year the Government rejected that when they put through the local government election Act for Māori wards. But this is around co-governance. What this does is says if you are Māori and you've opted to be on a Māori roll which is 28 percent of the voting population in the Rotorua Lakes District you have an equal say to the other 72 percent. It actually doesn't recognise that there are possibly as many Māori on the general roll who are also disadvantaged when it comes to how they elect their councillors and that is the reason that we're opposing this and actually it needs to be fixed. There is one final thing here. It is important that we get this right. It's not good enough that this House has been asked to say this is only for two elections because actually it ends up being a much wider and much greater debate than only Rotorua. We've heard others here say actually in all parts of the country we should have co-governance. That's a debate that must be had. It can't be done quietly—quickly last year when the Government rushed the legislation through—and now by a way of a local bill just for one council. Some of the councillors and the mayor are not standing for re-election later this year. This should be campaigned on. The case should be made widely to the people of Rotorua; everybody should have a say. The council should actually say: This is of such significance that we are having to ask Parliament to change the law that applies to the whole of the country. We're asking them to change it just for Rotorua. There should be a referendum on this locally at the very least. It should be campaigned on and then the new council should be the ones that make this decision." There are many people in Rotorua that feel that they haven't been listened to people that feel that they have been left out of this debate that they actually didn't get their say. We won't be supporting this because it does not deliver elections that are fair democratic or proportional. Every part of the country should actually elect in the same way and we will be voting against this."