Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:621;Page:16232] 
12.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister of Local Government 
: What advice has he received about when seven councils and 18 district health boards will get results for the local body elections that took place 10 days ago? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 The advice I have received is that the software problem seems to have been addressed and that KPMG and the office of the Auditor-General are now auditing the processes. Electoral officers will subsequently declare the final results. The first of those results is expected very shortly. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Does the Minister not believe that the hundreds of candidates affected and the millions of people who are waiting to know the results deserve better from the Minister of Local Government than a statement that the results may be out soon? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: Like all New Zealanders I am keen to see the results come out. But as with the results in Australia assessing the results is a complicated process. The Australians are still waiting for their results as well. 
Dave Hereora 
: How many local authorities have completed their elections? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: Seventy-nine of the 86 local authorities have declared or are about to declare their final results. The 79 local authorities include three that have successfully used single transferable voting (STV). 
Jim Peters 
: Were the recent district health board elections which were required to use the STV option by Government direction meant to be a local democratic process; if so why were so many rural districts almost completely disenfranchised and why have over 100000 New Zealanders had their votes disallowed and binned? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: The Government believed and still believes that STV will produce representation in district health boards that is comprehensive for the whole community. 
Larry Baldock 
: When those results do finally come out will the Minister conduct an inquiry to see whether the STV system has delivered some of the objectives that were promised of it; if not will he then consider scrapping that crazy system for future elections? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I will wait with keen interest the report of the Justice and Electoral Committee which will look at those matters. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What is the reason for the further delay when David Allen chief executive officer of New Zealand Post said that the stuff-up by Datamail was corrected last Wednesday; is it that Datamail has further failed or is there now a problem with Electionz.com? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: As I said in my primary answer Datamail has assured me that it has corrected the electronic problem. There is now a process whereby the Auditor-General’s office is checking the integrity of the process. It is very important that all people have confidence that the counting of this vote is an accurate one. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What responsibility does the Minister bear for the worst-ever local body election in New Zealand’s history when this is the first election run under the new Local Electoral Act which was trumpeted by Labour and passed in 2001? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I am confident that we will learn from the mistakes that have been made this time and ensure that a better process takes place next time. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek leave of the House to table the statement by New Zealand Post that the results would have been available last weekend. 
Document not tabled.