O'Rourke Denis: Electoral (Adjustment of Thresholds) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Electoral (Adjustment of Thresholds) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4743. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): New Zealand First will support this bill only to the select committee at this stage. And I might say that the reason mainly for that is that that is what the public of New Zealand expects. It expects that we will have a robust debate and discussion about these very important issues and that they will not simply be brushed aside as the National Government wishes to do. The last speaker Mrs Collins only gave us a list of what this party did what that party did not do and what the results of various elections were and that is hardly the basis on which these sorts of serious issues should be decided. So it shows that this Government is taking a cavalier attitude to these matters and that is not what the public wants.The public wants a good and proper and robust discussion. The only way that can happen is at the select committee and through that process. In that process New Zealand First will support the abolition of the coat-tailing provision—the one-seat threshold as some call it—but we will not agree to the lowering of the threshold from 5 percent to 4 percent. So we agree with one part of the bill but not with the other. We wish to have the opportunity to discuss all of that through the select committee process.The big issue for electoral reform in New Zealand is that coat-tailing provision. That is what the public thinks and that is what New Zealand First thinks as well. For those who do not understand it who may be watching this debate: well you are not alone in not understanding it because it is a completely illogical provision. There is no reason for it. The 5 percent threshold is for parties that get list seats and that should not be compromised by a one-seat threshold either. There should just be the one threshold and that should be it. That is what the electoral committee says that is what the public expects and that is what this process should result in.Why are we in the position of even having to debate this? It is because parties both parties now and other parties in the past have both seen the opportunity to use that coat-tailing provision for their own political purposes—not because it is proper not because it is democratic and not because it is in the national interest. No independent or professional advice has ever supported the coat-tailing provision. To the contrary: every formal recommendation that has been made so far—and that includes the Electoral Commission itself—says that that provision should go because it is unfair because it is undemocratic and because in an MMP system it is actually illogical.The results have been many and various. In 2008 New Zealand First had more list votes than other parties that won an electoral seat and got more than one seat in Parliament and yet on that occasion New Zealand First got a little less than 5 percent and got no seats in Parliament. That is not fair that is not logical and that does not fit well with what is supposed to be a proportional system under MMP. The MMP system is grossly compromised by the coat-tailing provision and it is time that it went. Other parties have allowed obvious cynical and blatant gerrymanders of the system. An example of that is the ACT Party which was gifted a seat in this Parliament. Why was it gifted a seat in this Parliament? The reason is that the National Government wanted to see the coat-tailing provision in operation with the hope that not only would it get David Seymour into the House but it would get other seats as wellthat were not deserved and that exactly is a good reason why the gerrymander has to stop.The threshold of 5 percent is necessary because it is a good balance between on the one hand a fair and democratic system of representation for small parties but on the other hand nobody wanting to see a proliferation of very tiny parties with one or two seats in this Parliament. So that is what the threshold is there for and 5 percent is the right level and no other.