Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's my pleasure to take a call on this particular amendment and it's also my pleasure to sit behind two learned gentlemen who know more about this than probably the rest of the House put together. I compliment the Hon Dr Nick Smith on the effort and energy and rigour he's brought to this debate ably supported by the shadow Leader of the House the Hon Gerry Brownlee. What I look at today is a really simple amendment that actually seeks to add some rigour to this debate and to this change.We shouldn't kid ourselves. In my short time here this is the most significant constitutional debate that this Parliament has had and yet we hear nothing whatsoever from the parties that are proposing it to support their strength of conviction. To bring the Electoral Commission in to me is a simple thing. If nothing else changes in this piece of legislation—and it appears that that is going to be the case—to bring the Electoral Commission in simply says that there is some rigour about what is going to occur and what has occurred after the event.I'll put it in context. A number of speakers including the Minister have talked about the preservation of proportionality. We've had debates about how that will be threatened about how there could be distortions. We can't even have a debate actually on the difference between electoral and constituent MPs and list MPs because we're not interested in the real facts and implications of what's happening here. If I listen to the Minister it is all around the party vote—the party vote rules supreme. Well I'm an electorate MP and I'm elected to support my electorate and I'll do my damnedest to do that even if that means from time to time that I am at odds with my party. Unless we have a system that actually measures what happens when and will report to this House over the period of time then actually we have no rigour in recording that. We know that all the academics have opposed this bill for a variety of very good reasons. If we don't have the Electoral Commission reporting on what actually happens we will have no Government agency whatsoever keeping tabs on this and impartially reporting so that this House can have some way of interrogating that. I give an example. Earlier today you might have noticed some children in the audience Madam Chair—you may not have been here; the former Chair. They are children from a school in Napier where National has the party vote by majority and it is held by a Labour MP. If that Labour MP for whatever reason—and I'm not proposing this at all—was removed under this provision there is a really high chance that that seat would become a seat held by National as a constituent MP. That fundamentally changes the proportionality of Parliament but we can't even have a conversation about thatSo I think it is really important that this Parliament and this House has an ability for a regular and scheduled work programme of the Electoral Commission to report on these changes in its normal cycle or if it's something extraordinary in an extraordinary way so this House and the select committee and the process can have a debate on what is actually occurring. It is easy to try and rush this through but the consequences are such that electorate MPs' integrity particularly I think is significantly compromised. The consequences on the make-up of Parliament could be compromised and the principal objective of this bill and the amendments that have been made aren't achieved anyway. So if nothing else can be achieved as part of the amendments from this side of the House I would argue that this one should be. The Electoral Commission plays a vital role in all elections and this particular task should be added to its list.