van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's been really interesting to follow the debate on this bill tonight. There've been some incredibly defensive comments from the Green members and the New Zealand First members have come out firing come out attacking other sides of the House for trying to repeal an incredibly damaging piece of legislation. And we just heard there about Oh well potentially there were some personal things." No not the case—this bill is a terrible piece of legislation. It should never have come before this House. It should never have been passed. And repealing this waka-jumping bill is an incredibly important part of what needs to happen for our democratic process. Now this particular bill obviously repealing the waka-jumping bill is about demonstrating the importance the independence of members within this House. And I think it was incredibly rich for the Greens to get up and try and take the moral high ground and say that no we shouldn't be bringing other members into it. We shouldn't be talking about disrupting proportionality. Actually we are here as members of Parliament to do what we have been elected for by our constituents and for the Green Party to get up and say now that maybe they're going to change their values because they changed them last time—we're not quite sure; they're chopping and changing this election year so I guess perhaps we'll see—it is an absolute disgrace. I think for them to have taken that position when they have so strongly opposed this legislation in the past to fall in behind the Government entirely at the whim of Mr Peters is an absolute disgrace. And I think on that basis it is terribly poor of the Green Party to now decide—election year here; only a couple of months out—actually they're going to change their stripes. I don't think it's good enough to have one set of morals and values early in a parliamentary term and then close to the election to change those stripes. It's great that we've heard that actually they're looking to support this bill—as they well should as every party in this House should. Actually they should never have supported its predecessor that this is repealing. And so I think it is a bit rich for the Greens to say now that they are taking the moral high ground when in reality this bill should never have had to come through in the first place. So we will continue to fight for the democratic values that we believe are important. We are all here as members to represent our areas to represent those constituents around the country that elected us to this Parliament. We need to do that freely. We cannot be under the guise or under the power or control of party leaders who can choose to expel us as members of Parliament if we have varying views. I'm the member of Waikato. I love that electorate. I'm proud to represent it. If there was something happening in the Waikato that was hugely important to that region that I chose to support on their behalf and it was different to the views of my party then that is a position that I would take to support my electorate. That's what they have asked me to come here to do on their behalf. Now I don't think that would genuinely happen because National understands the needs of Waikato and they put out great policies that align with our constituents. But the reality is that flexibility for members of Parliament is absolutely critical. So this bill is hugely important to unwind a terrible piece of legislation that should never have been passed through this House. And having both New Zealand First and the Greens jump up and give extremely defensive stances just clearly shows that they know they were in the wrong and we must pass this law now. So I commend it to the House."