Hide Rodney: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hide Rodney: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12662. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I want to do something novel this afternoon—it is certainly novel for me—and that is to give kudos to the Minister of Justice Mr Mark Burton. We know that we have a bill the Electoral Finance Bill that is not quite right. I think the Minister of Justice has said that and indeed the Prime Minister has said it. Parliament and the Justice and Electoral Committee are now working to fix it up. 
The concern I have is how we go about fixing it up the difficulty being that what we are doing here is regulating not just politicians and would-be candidates but indeed anyone who in an election year wants to express a political opinion and spend money to that effect. People actually have to make a statutory declaration even for $10 and if they want to spend more than $5000 on a policy then they have to register with the Government that they want to express a political view. That is pretty tough. 
I was impressed with the Human Rights Commission’s submission on Thursday. I myself think that we should not have any of these rules but given that in Parliament it is believed that there should be some limits on the freedom of speech it seems to me important that we get the rules right. The Human Rights Commission which is actually set up independently of the Government to have a statutory function to protect the rights of New Zealanders said that it agreed with the Minister and the Government on the intent of the bill but was concerned about its impact. The commission suggested that it would be happy to work expeditiously with the committee on how to amend the bill to deal with some of the concerns the public have—and indeed I think the Government now has in response to submissions. 
It seems that that is a good way forward. I will therefore propose to the committee tomorrow that we advise officials to attempt to amend the legislation in light of the Human Rights Commission’s suggestions and that we authorise the committee to consult with the Human Rights Commission so that we can speed up things with a bit of two-way dialogue. Indeed when the officials come to report back to the committee I suggest we invite the Human Rights Commission along as well. 
It seems to me that for this process to have any integrity Parliament should really work quite hard to have the Human Rights Commission on board with a tick. I was pleased that the Minister of Justice was prepared to say: “Yes we are going to be looking at changes to the bill; that is what the select committee process is about.” and that although he did not agree entirely with the Human Rights Commission’s submission he was not against the committee’s taking on board its recommendations and attempting to deal with those concerns. 
I believe that this issue is so vital and so important because it affects every New Zealander. I do not think it is the Minister’s intent to chill political debate or political expression; I think the Government wants to have a set of rules that attends to its objectives but does not freeze out people who have a dissenting view or who want to express a political opinion. 
I would like to think that around this House we could work with the Human Rights Commission to get some sound electoral finance rules so that we protect people’s freedom of speech and so that we ensure a proper and fair democratic process. Do we in this country really really want to be passing electoral law that the Human Rights Commission is implacably opposed to because of its impact on our freedom of expression? I do not think so. So I will be looking forward to tomorrow and to each political party agreeing to work closely with the Human Rights Commission to see whether we can take on board its concerns. We have to say that the commission is the neutral arbiter of human rights in this country.