Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. It's a pleasure to rise after one Hon Nick Smith—perhaps the longest speech that I've ever heard on a relatively minor bill. This Act—sorry this piece of legislation this proposed bill—is relatively straightforward as has been stated by Nick Smith and a number of other speakers. It amends two pieces of legislation: the Local Electoral Act 2001 and the Electoral Act 1993. I also just want to echo the sentiments that were raised by Ron Mark around the fact that province turnout on local body elections is typically higher than it is in metropolitan or urban areas and that definitely is the case.The figure just raised by the Hon Nick Smith of around 45 percent in the local body elections in 2016 that being the average across the entirety of New Zealand—I myself was a candidate in the 2016 local body elections in Auckland where we only managed just shy of a 40 percent turnout. I would however—Hon Maggie Barry: One four?CHLÖE SWARBRICK: —say that—it was just shy of 40 percent. But I would however say that we did manage to reverse a trend of decline. In the 2013 local body election the voter turnout was 34.7 percent and if I may say that is one of the many reasons that I decided to throw my hat into the ring.What I have discovered in talking about how this piece of legislation is definitely not going to solve all of the problems when it comes to people being engaged in local government is it's the case that people have to be engaged in their local communities. I think that that goes to the heart of what was being put forward by Ron Mark around the fact that in provinces we typically have more tighter-knit communities—people are less likely to move around as much as they do in urban or city areas. It's also the case that in urban areas we typically have greater transience so it's the case that people don't have the same postbox on a three-yearly cycle. When I was a candidate I found myself having to help a number of people trying to enrol and trying to cast a vote.I would also state that what the stats show and the evidence from overseas is that whilst introducing online voting does actually provide a bump in voter participation in the year that it is introduced that actually goes back down to normal levels subsequent to that meaning that that increase can be associated to perhaps something akin to novelty but you actually don't solve the fundamental problems of local democracy or people's enfranchisement in local democracy which I believe was the point that Nick Smith was attempting to get at.So the Green Party is quite happy to be supporting this piece of legislation because at the end of the day voting should never be a difficult thing but what we currently have through the postal voting period for local body elections is indeed a little bit of an arduous process particularly for my generation many of whom I've had conversations with throughout their experiences in local body elections and they haven't known where to locate a postbox but also to the point around those young people's transience in particular. But notably of course this is not going to solve those fundamental issues and those fundamental issues will only be resolved when people start to feel a sense of connection to that local democracy and start to feel as though their vote matters or can have an impact. So on that point for anybody listening whether they happen to be in this House or at home please do enrol in your local body elections and make sure that you're out there not just voting but also ensuring that you're campaigning for something. It doesn't necessarily have to be for a candidate but it can be for a cause. With all of that said the Green Party is incredibly proud to be supporting this piece of legislation.