Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I hadn't been part of this debate earlier because I was meeting with a very important delegation—in the gallery now—our friends from South Korea. So I take this opportunity to acknowledge them in the gallery today.It seems to me that clause 4 amending section 55 How vacancies created" is the very operative clause of this dreadful legislation. I want you Mr Chair to think about your own valuable contributions that have been made to your caucus over many many years. I have not been a member obviously of the Labour caucus or the New Zealand First caucus; I'm a proud member of the National caucus. I can tell you that when we have discussions every Tuesday over a wide range of issues members feel free to give their point of view and we discuss these issues in-depth freely and according to our own conscience and then we come to a conclusion which binds us all.With this clause there now and this legislation passed I guarantee that every member of whatever party they belong to will think very seriously about their very contributions to caucus because as you start to make your contribution to caucus you will be judging how far you're going in upsetting the leader of your party to the extent that this clause may then force you to no longer be a member of the political party. I just ask the House to think about that.Politics is a contest of ideas. None of us has all the answers. We develop our policies by talking about them ruminating on the issues and coming up with the best policy options but what this clause does is it starts to stop that. It means that if I go into my caucus and I want to express a point of view I'm always judging how that point of view might be taken by the leader and whether I perhaps overstepped the mark to the extent a process starts. It may not happen instantly on that particular Tuesday. It may be something that then develops over time and ultimately our leader dissatisfied with the person who continually raises a point of view that he doesn't agree with starts to ferment in his mind a way he can get rid of that member of Parliament—how that member's dissent can be stopped and it becomes easy because of clause 4.It just gives the leader the ability to suddenly make sure that we're all clones. What's that going to do for the democratic processes of New Zealand? That's why Mr Chair as you've listened to this debate you've heard how few countries in the world have gone with this legislation because it's wrong and you can see it is wrong by looking over the other side of the Chamber—how the Government members are hanging their heads in shame. Even the Minister in the chair who I've got a huge amount of respect for—one of the hardest-working Ministers in the current Government—doesn't agree with this legislation. I've heard his few explanations when he is prepared to get to his feet. His heart's not in this.We all know why it's here. It's because one leader can't control his caucus. So we're being imposed with legislation because of the Rt Hon Winston Peters' own skills in handling people. That's why this legislation is here. Don't shy away with any other excuses. That's why I speak with some passion about this particular operative clause of this pernicious dangerous legislation.I note that Greg O'Connor is there. We had a meeting earlier about a forthcoming visit to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). I challenge him to go around proudly amongst those 45000 members of the IPU many of them in Geneva at the conference in October and talk with pride about New Zealand entering into the same status as Zimbabwe—the same status as Zimbabwe.So Mr Chairman I thank you for the opportunity of speaking to this clause. I will oppose not only this clause I will oppose every clause in this awful dreadful bill—Hon Members: Mr Chair!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: —with every bone in my body. It should not be allowed to proceed."