Williams ArenaELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 28 July.ARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker and it's a pleasure to stand and take a short call on the Electoral Amendment Bill. Members will recall that this bill makes a number of changes to the Electoral Act 1993 to increase public trust in the transparency of the political donations and loans framework and to extend the eligibility of overseas voters to enrol to vote in the 2023 general election.Let me start with just a comment that the integrity of Parliament as an institution is very much informed by the integrity of both the rules that govern parties and people here and the parties and people themselves. I have been alarmed in this debate by some pretty flippant discussion about people's motivations particularly in relation to donations. I would say that everyone here takes very seriously the role of parliamentarians in maintaining the integrity of this place and that really what we're having here is a discussion about the problem that we're trying to solve because we agree I think around the House that we do have an issue with public perceptions around the transparency of donations and that we all want a system that people have trust and confidence in.The problem here that this bill is trying to address—well there are three. The first is that transparency around large donations needs to be improved. There is influence that people have when they make a large donation to a political party and it's only right that we record the name of the person making a donation. That extends to the second point which is that when someone makes a donation of up to $1500 and they are named and they intend to be named there is no rule which requires party secretaries currently to disclose that part. That is a fundamental part of something like trust accounting where if you give a donation to any cause and you expect to be named and you expect that to be transparent you would expect the trustee—or in this case the party secretary who is receiving the donation on your behalf—to be transparent about what your intentions there were.The third is something we haven't really canvassed in this debate which is that there are two ways in New Zealand that we participate in political decision-making if you're your average Joe. One is to give a party donation because parties need to be able to advertise and they need to be able to run big election campaigns. But the second one is volunteering. By going out and knocking on doors by getting on the phone for your preferred candidate you do make a difference in our electoral system. That is always disclosed. You're doing that with your face. You're doing that with your name. You're doing it with your voice on the phone when you say Kia ora it's Arena Williams. I'm here and I'm campaigning for my candidate because I reckon she's giving us a good go." All people who volunteer and do that are participating in a political system. Their names are known. Their identities are known.So this is also about making sure we get the balance right of participation where we say that if you have a lot of money you should put your face and name out there too. It should be fair between people who give their time and their effort and people who give their money because those things are both important in our political system and this bill strikes the best balance and that's why I support it.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): I call Simon O'Connor—five minutes."