Mark Ron: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Mark Ron: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:622;Page:17601] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I ask members whether any of them recall these dates. In March 1949 there was a referendum on off-course betting and the gaming Act. People say that New Zealanders do not understand referenda and cannot handle them—cannot get their heads around them. That is interesting. That referendum asked two questions and the country voted 68 percent in favour of off-course betting. In August 1949 there was another referendum on compulsory military training. How controversial that was in those days! And the country still got its head around it with 77.9 percent of the population voting “Yes” to compulsory military training. 
On 23 September 1967 people were asked a question regarding the term of Parliament—3 years or 4 years. Sixty-eight percent of them got their heads around the question and said “3 years”. In October 1990 there was another referendum on the term of Parliament—the same thing again—and 69 percent confirmed that they wanted it to be 3 years. On 19 September 1992 a very complex two-part referendum asked firstly whether people wished to retain first past the post or whether they wished to change the voting system. Eighty-four percent of them got their heads around the complexities of that question and said they wanted to change the voting system. 
The second question asked which voting system they preferred and gave a range of choices—supplementary-member representation system single transferable vote MMP and preferential voting. And what did we get? We got 70.5 percent working their way through the complexities of the arguments and making a decision. They said they wanted MMP. 
That was followed up with another referendum between MMP and first past the post. The country was bombarded with paper bags on heads and all sorts of strange advertisements. People still got their heads around the question and 53.9 percent said they wanted MMP which is the system we have today. 
In September 1997 on the compulsory retirement savings scheme 91.8 percent got their heads around the complexities of the referendum New Zealand First put up—again establishing our very long-held belief in the use of referenda—and rejected the compulsory savings scheme. 
In December 1995 there was a referendum on whether the number of professional firefighters employed in the full-time New Zealand service should be reduced. Labour campaigned on championed and hailed this referendum as something they could beat the National Party up with. And what did we get? We got 87.8 percent getting their heads around that complex issue and saying: “Don’t reduce the number of firefighters.” 
In 1999 a referendum asked whether the House of Representatives should be reduced from 120 members to 99. Mrs Robertson received 81.5 percent support from the population who said: “Too right. We don’t like the voting system and now we just want you to know we don’t like having too many MPS; get the numbers down.” Did this place listen? No. It has a fine track record of not listening in recent years. 
On 27 November 1999 we had another referendum the Withers referendum dealing with longer and harsher penalties and 91.8 percent of the people clearly got their heads around that question and said they wanted tougher and longer sentences. 
So what is the problem? Here we have a situation where Labour is standing up and saying: “We won. You lost. Eat that! We’re going to make the decisions. We are the ones who know better.” But do they know better? Did National know better when Jenny Shipley declared we were living in a café society and everybody should be able to buy alcohol. That was just after she launched the Hero Parade in Auckland I think. The result was that Parliament lowered the drinking age. 
What is the result now? People said it was wrong. They said they wanted a choice. Now there has been an 87.4 percent increase in hospitalisation of children aged 14 to 19 because of the drinking problem. The medical experts the medical professionals—even Matt Robson who voted to lower the drinking age now says he was wrong and Parliament was wrong. He is out there campaigning for a member’s bill that he has put together copying mine. Parliament does not know better. This should be a referendum issue.