Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm pleased to take a call and be part of the fiery debate that's been going in the House this afternoon. Of course this is the first reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill and like the Hon Andrew Little—I was going to call him his Māori name but Andrew Little—laid out it has four parts. I want to address the four parts but I want to just reply to some of the challenges that that particular member Nick Smith—an experienced member in this House—raised.Can I just say this Thursday will be a week since I've been the chair of the Justice Committee and I'm proud of the work that previous members have done and the amount of work that they've put through this House in terms of the 19 bills that have come through this House. We're not a committee that is shy of hard work. So this particular bill the Electoral Amendment Bill—I'm pleased that as part of the coalition Government we tackle the big issues and voter participation is a big issue. It is an issue that this side of the House thinks is important for not just next year's general election but beyond that. We are talking about improving our electoral system in this country which goes beyond the three-year cycle.The Minister outlined there are four key components of this bill. He talked about the election day—vote and register on the same day. I have a story of my own 19-year-old son going to vote in an advance vote only to find out that he wasn't registered. So we thought that we could register and he cast his vote. We got told that his party vote was accepted but not his candidate vote so him and I have this kind of joke that he wasn't able to vote for his mum in the last 2017 vote. But it goes to show there are sectors of our community that do miss out and this bill is attempting to make that experience of rocking on up to the election poll on election day and find that you haven't registered to not only vote but to also cast your vote and that's what this bill is attempting to do. I'm surprised that all members of this House don't see value in allowing all voters in this country who are eligible—18 years and over—to have the ability to vote and register on election day.The bill also talks about the extra places that the Minister canvassed—he talked about obviously supermarkets but we've got community halls—to give the Electoral Commission the flexibility to have venues that are fit for purpose for a voter experience and so this bill talks about expanding the range of premises that can be used as voting places. Of course the other area is improving voter issuing and return processes like a register and we talk in parts in this bill about the ongoing work that the Electoral Commission is doing by 2023 of instituting an electronic register. But in this election for 2020 we want to make sure that we are ensuring that the ordinary vote that's issued is found on the electoral roll at the time and allows again those first-time voters or voters who thought they were registered the mechanisms in which they can turn up and vote and have their register electronically or likewise acknowledged.The fourth area is the disruptive powers given to the commission. For me personally I'm keen when we go out for consultation on this bill that submitters actually have an input into the width and the breadth of the powers that we are updating for the Chief Electoral Officer in terms of what constitutes a disruption to obviously voting day and how that is managed. So there is a whole list of provisions in this bill that talks about the disruption to the voting experience and the role that the Chief Electoral Officer will play in either moving or making decisions.Now on that side of the House we had the Hon Nick Smith talk about the involvement of the Opposition leader in that decision making. Well you know we could put that to the select committee and hear from people New Zealanders about whether they think that's practical or whether that will work. In terms of some of the other comments that Dr Smith talked about in terms of process when I reference in my contribution to this particular debate I'm using the departmental disclosure statement. Obviously we've all got that in the House. But the first question talks about what available inquiries or reviews or reports have gone in to inform this particular bill and there's not one report there's not two reports but there's actually three.There's three reports that have gone in to inform this bill. They are the Report of the Electoral Commission on the 2014 General Election Electoral Commission April 2015; there's the Inquiry into the 2014 General Election Justice and Electoral Committee which was chaired by Jacqui Dean in April 2016; and then the third report was the Report of the Electoral Commission on the 2017 General Election Electoral Commission April 2018. So the concerns on that side of the House that this bill has been put together without any information from outside reports I guess by the study in this departmental—it completely nullifies those statements because clearly it says that there have been three reports that have gone into this particular bill. It also has come up and Dr Smith raised it that the Minister wrote to the Justice Committee in December last year inviting them to examine the Electoral Commission's report and of course we've heard that nothing came back.So this is a Government that is committed to doing the right thing that takes action and that wants to ensure that our electoral system is voter-friendly and that all people no matter where they are in this country can participate in our general election in 2020 but beyond. This bill in its simplicity does address those key areas like we said: vote and registration on the same day the fact that we can expand where we're going to hold elections and of course the electoral registration and of course the disruptive powers that I've mentioned earlier. It is a piece of legislation that I thought all parties in this House would agree allows participation of our voters.Like I said in my opening stance this is a very hard-working select committee. I am sure that we will scrutinise it in the time that we've been allocated. We will ensure that it goes far and wide. I know that this committee is a very diligent committee that every submission will be scrutinised and debated on and that's good because when the bills come back into this House from that particular select committee they have been thoroughly scrutinised and thoroughly tested.Without prolonging this first speech I'm really supportive that it is being made in this House and that it is going off to our select committee. We've been tasked to report back in December—I think it was December December later this year. Obviously it will give the Electoral Commission great clarity and steer in terms of expectations for next year's general election. I commend this bill to the House.