Coffey TāmatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. This bill here fits into the 2020 manifesto of the New Zealand Labour Party: to continue to protect the integrity of our election system to make sure that our voters continually have access to the polls and to do a review of the electoral financing rules as well. The previous speaker spoke about a couple of those changes. The one before us right now which is most important is making sure that we have a legislation which is fit for purpose in time for next year's general election.I want to thank the Minister Kiritapu Allan for bringing this to the House and also to the Justice Committee and also the chair of the Justice Committee Ginny Andersen for traversing through the many submissions that came in from around the country. Lots of people have lots of opinions on this and it's really important that they were able to listen to that diverse range of opinions—both the people that were for it and the people that were against it as well.In 2020—again a previous speaker mentioned it—24000 Māori tried to change rolls and they couldn't because they were prevented by the rules. What rule is that? The rule that only four months every five years do Māori get to decide which electoral roll they'd like to be on. Some that are switched on they manage to make that. Some that are busy out there feeding the kids and going to work they don't catch that. So I've borne the brunt of many a Māori voter in my time here in this House who have been frustrated by the process—frustrated at the fact that they haven't been able to change rolls as often at as they would like to.Why do people change rolls? For many different reasons: sometimes it's got to do with the candidates sometimes it's got to do with the political feel of the day. More importantly it was the submission from Local Government New Zealand that pointed out that actually with the changes that we made last year to Māori wards to enable local councils to be able to establish Māori wards in a meaningful way it now means that those Māori ward councillors or candidates can only be voted on by people that are on the Māori roll.So it's given it a new meaning and we heard that through the submissions process too; that actually the Māori roll had just been the domain of us here in central government but actually local government now sees the importance of being able to assist voters that want to determine which roll they would like to be on. I know for many of my family they choose to be on the Māori roll because it's where they feel that they can have that guaranteed representation and they're elated at the fact that they can have that now at a local government level too.Because of that we now have 35 councils territorial and local all around the country and 66 Māori ward councillors spread out all across Aotearoa from Te Rerenga Wairua all the way down to the Bluff. It's really important to note that the only reason the only way that we can get that representation around those tables is to make sure that we've got Māori who are on the Māori roll that can elect Māori ward councillors.This is a really important piece of legislation. I'm glad it's come before the House like this. I look forward to progressing it through to its final destination so that we can actually head back out there into our communities and tell our Māori communities that actually whichever roll they choose to be on that's their right—remembering that it was actually this House that imposed the whole system on the country back in the day. Actually they decided that it was going to be a way for Māori to be able to have that guaranteed representation.So Māori beforehand were shepherded into these Māori seats but now actually many see it as the way to be able to ensure that they have guaranteed representation for kaupapa Māori for whakaaro Māori for those issues which dominate the kōrero around marae kitchen tables all around Aotearoa. So I look forward to this reaching its final destination I'm in complete support of it and I commend it to the House.