Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Chair. This is a very important amendment and the reason for that is because we do need oversight in terms of what is a major fundamental change to the way that this Parliament is going to operate. It's not small. It's not a minor change on the fringes; this is a major change in terms of how this Parliament is going to operate and it changes the rights of the members of this Parliament.I could get into the argument about this being retrospective in that I believe that the Minister if he wanted to show real leadership around this if he really believed in it should take it to the next election. Take it to the 2020 election and let the people have a say on it. Let the people decide because as it's become very clear on this side of the House we feel that it's a massive attack on our democracy. As Kiwis we are fiercely independent. Yep we come together. We love getting out supporting our national teams. When we travel we tend to stick together. But we also have a fierce independence and that's reflected in the way that this Parliament operates too.So we need to have the Electoral Commission actually having oversight in terms of being able to monitor how this piece of legislation is going to be applied and how it's going to work. I'll just give you one clear example: fundamentally the Minister keeps standing up and although he hasn't been able to give us any clear example of why this bill is going to stop a distortion of proportionality—because it doesn't. It won't do that at all and if you listen to the arguments and the debate that we've had on this side of the Chamber we've clearly laid out clear examples of that. This bill will not stop a distortion of proportionality in this House. It will not do that.Coming back to the Electoral Commission and why it's important for them to have oversight the formation of the New Zealand Parliament is at the conclusion of the general election and the formation of the New Zealand Parliament is directly linked to the party vote. It's the party vote that matters and in an MMP environment everyone accepts that. That is what will create the proportionality of this Parliament. [Interruption] Yep so the Hon Damien O'Connor—he's clicked on to it; he's suddenly got it. So take a call—take a call and support me on this because I see you understand it.Hon Dr Nick Smith: He's worried about it. He's nervous.Hon MARK MITCHELL: He is—you can see it. I haven't seen him like that for a while. It's only the thought of parliamentary rugby games that get him that nervous.The reality is this: the Parliament is formed under the party vote and yet what this bill is proposing is that the list members that have come into the party as part of that party vote are discarded. They are literally auto-bots of the party—the parties that choose to actually adhere to this and embrace this legislation. I can assure you the National Party will not be doing that. But the other list MPs—yep I'm sorry you guys are cannon fodder. Really there's no point; you're warm bodies that are turning up—effectively that's what it is. The reality of it is the leaders now have all the power. This bill that you're passing puts all the power squarely at the feet of the leaders in terms of what they decide what they're going to do with their caucuses. So that independence is gone—it's been snuffed out.The party vote is what dictates the proportionality of our Parliament but what this bill is proposing is that it'll go back to an electorate vote and an electorate vote is very different. An electorate vote is not going to deliver a guaranteed result that's going to maintain the proportionality of this Parliament as it was formed; in fact quite the opposite. If you look at by-elections they often change the proportionality of Parliament.So it's very important that the Electoral Commission is able to have oversight on this so that they're able to record that they're able to watch and they're able to actually report back to the Parliament and say The purpose of this bill"—the reason why the Minister has chosen to bring this bill to the House for us to debate and pass into legislation—"is actually being adhered to. The spirit of the bill is actually delivering what it says it was going to deliver." and actually the Electoral Commission is going to be the best body to do that. They're going to be able to analyse it they're going to be able to look at it.I think the Hon Gerry Brownlee made a very good point—I'll finish on this. We believe that you know 100 percent of the country is watching and hanging on every word in this Parliament. You're very naive if you think that everyone—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I'm not naive at all.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Sorry Madam Chair. We would be very naive to believe that even 10 percent or 15 percent of the country are sitting around hanging on every word of the debate in this Chamber. That's the reality of it. They will start to understand. Don't worry once this bill is passed they will start to have an understanding of exactly what this bill is trying to achieve and what it's about.But the point that the Hon Gerry Brownlee made was this: with the implementation of this bill if a Labour member of the caucus who is an electorate MP decides to take a position and a stand on something that is fundamentally important to their electorate and the leader and the caucus dismiss him or her so she's gone from Parliament and all of a sudden a by-election is called I can assure you that the people in that electorate—people do not like by-elections. They're costly. They're disruptive. When people go to the polls every three years they expect to go there and be able to make their vote to tick the party vote and to tick the candidate vote and that's it. They say "Get on with it. We've made our vote now we expect our Parliament for the next three years to get on with it." They do not like by-elections. They certainly don't like having them forced on them by parties and that's exactly what this bill is proposing to do.So I can assure you that when the provisions of this bill are triggered and the leader of the Labour Party dismisses from Parliament the MP that's trying to actually take a stand on something that they inherently believe in and strongly enough that they're willing to actually put themselves at risk—but actually they've got to do it because they're there to represent the interests of their electorate. When that happens I can assure you that the electorate will want to know why we are faced with a costly by-election: why and how has this happened?So I'll be very interested and actually maybe the Minister can stand and take a call on this and address this point and explain to us what is he going to say and what is the Government going to say and explain to that electorate when the MP that they voted to bring into Parliament to represent their views to come here into this House of Representatives—and they expect them to by the way. They don't want them to be a creature of the party. They understand and they expect that there'll be some discipline applied—they get that. They understand the values they want to look at how the parties actually can govern and they look at the positives and the negatives. But the one thing they expect from their electorate MP is that they'll come into this House and they'll have the intestinal fortitude and they'll have the character to be able to stand up for what they want.Let's not forget the fact that this is their House of Representatives. This is where their representative comes to advance and stand up for and make a stand on their interests. It's the only voice that they have. This House is the only voice that they have and what this bill is saying to them is that now this does not matter; what matters is the party leaders become the dictators of who stays and who goes in this Parliament. So they're going to have to get up and they're going to have to explain to that electorate why a by-election is being called and why their member of Parliament—I'm coming back to why the Electoral Commission is a big part of this Madam Chair—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Good.Hon MARK MITCHELL: —has been expelled from Parliament without them having any say in the matter at all.So that's why I believe that this is a very good amendment and I support the Hon Dr Nick Smith. I would appeal to the Green Party to have a look at this amendment and to get behind it. You've taken a massive hit on your integrity. I don't know if it's recoverable. I don't think it is—I personally don't think it is. But one thing that you can do and I see that the leader is in the—sorry Madam Chair. One thing that the Hon James Shaw can do as the leader of the party—he has not taken a call in this House yet on this debate—is take a call talk about this amendment and say that at least the Green Party can support what's a very good amendment and relates directly to oversight. Thank you Madam Chair."