Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): Madam Speaker it's a pleasure to rise and contribute to what is the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2). I want to just take a moment to reflect on the contribution from Golriz Ghahraman. Golriz said that this is a good day for democracy and I want to reflect on this statement in particular and ask the House some questions here today. Is it a good day for democracy when the very processes that have been put in place to guard our democracy are curtailed? Is that a good day for democracy? I genuinely ask that to the House. Is it a good day for democracy when we do not hear from the public on matters of importance such as this? The answer to that is clearly no. It was just amazing for me to watch Golriz Ghahraman speak in that tone when clearly this is not a good day for democracy. To what my colleague the Hon Nick Smith said we have a fantastic reputation in New Zealand and around the world for being a free uncorrupt society. I've lived right across the world. I've had a chance to work in some pretty corrupt countries myself—countries like Kazakhstan countries like Ukraine—and I can say that it is a sad day for democracy that we do not have the opportunity to discuss bills like this through the democratic means and that we do not have an opportunity to hear from the public about a simple law with respect to banning foreign donations. We in New Zealand have to guard our reputation very seriously and I don't think it's in the interests of New Zealand's democracy to have such a short process for this bill that we are discussing tonight. I ask the other side of the House: why is it that we cannot have at least a week of select committee? A week would do it. I honestly haven't received an answer in the whole time that I've been in the House today. So we've heard loud and clear today about how shoddy this process has been that we've been put into urgency and that the business of the House and of all select committees by way of urgency have been pushed aside so that the very processes that have been the foundation of our democracy are curtailed to pass this law. I still haven't heard on the other side of the House—and I would encourage members to take a call and simply answer that question—why are we in this process of urgency right now when we could have even a week or two to consider this important bill? We also want to look at ways to improve our foreign donations. We also have an interest in guarding New Zealand's reputation as our uncorrupt society throughout the world but we also want to make sure that the rules of democracy are protected and that we hear from those that these laws are going to affect. We have today heard some very valid points right here from my colleague Nicola Willis. We've had some great questions from here around: does this bill actually address the problems that we're trying to solve? I think it's a bad day for democracy when we have a bill that is designed to solve a problem that is non-existent or that doesn't solve the correct problem that we wish to solve. There are questions that we've raised today around why this law is not applicable to local body elections. We've heard from the likes of Duncan Webb that it is to protect democracy for New Zealanders but having read the bill it is not clear to me that non-residents who are based in New Zealand cannot give to a political party. For example if you are a non-citizen resident here on a working visa can you donate to a political party? Anybody from the other side of the House can you answer me that simple question? This is crickets—the silence is deafening. We can't even answer the basic question of whether a foreign citizen who is based here on a New Zealand visa can donate to a political party. Now these are the questions that the select committee would've been able to delve into. We would've been able to actually have experts come in and give us advice on how to structure the law in such a way as to protect New Zealand's democracy from foreign interference. But we have already heard of a number of instances where we are possibly leaving ourselves short on the purposes of this bill. The principles of this bill—of course we support greater tightening of rules to protect New Zealand's democracy. Of course we support greater transparency. That is why we're still asking questions from the New Zealand First Party. How does this law apply to the trusts that they have? We still don't have any answer from New Zealand First about their foundation. Hon Clare Curran: What about the Inner Mongolian donations? DAN BIDOIS: Take a call—take a call Clare Curran because we would love to know why the Labour Party are supporting a law yet you've said nothing about the New Zealand First Foundation that has been uncovered so far. So it is a bad day for democracy. It is a bad day for good policy-making in this House and it's a bad day for a whole host of other reasons not to mention that the select committees are not meeting tomorrow. It's because we are an urgency that they are not meeting and I'm glad to see the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee Rino Tirikatene here because we were scheduled to discuss some very important aspects tomorrow and unfortunately we're not going to get to that because we are here under urgency for no apparent reason. All we can deduce is that we are here because the Labour Party received a bad poll and they want a feel-good factor—something to go out there with and say Look at what we've done. This is what we call the year of delivery. We have banned foreign donations from New Zealand." Well that is a shoddy way to make policy in New Zealand. It is a shocking day for democracy and all we can say is that we have the committee of the whole House later on tonight or tomorrow and I would appreciate answers to our questions from the other side of the House today. Who does this apply to and not apply to? How are there—that's right. I'm getting arms up in the air from David Seymour so he's in the same position as well. We've got an electoral amendment bill—we do think it is a bad day for democracy. This has nothing to do with donations of trusts which the last few weeks have uncovered is a serious issue for the House and a serious issue for political parties in New Zealand yet this bill doesn't even touch on that. It doesn't touch on the fact that if you are a foreigner living in New Zealand under a work permit or a visa there are still avenues for you to donate. We'll be opposed to those things even though we support the bill in its stage. Thank you."