Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Local Electoral Matters Bill. It is another excellent piece of legislation making local government work even better than it already does in New Zealand. I like this bill that came to the Justice Committee and I enjoyed hearing the submissions on it and I very much enjoyed engaging with the members opposite on the select committee about how we refine and improve this bill. So it does come as some surprise to hear such complaints that this bill is micro-brewing" I understand was the term that was used.What I see is an incredibly bold move to take a step towards a different way of voting. So we know the current provisions within the Local Electoral Act will provide postal voting and a polling booth. But what this bill does is it looks at being able to enable a trial of online voting whether that be to a specific group. It might be those people in an area that have disability issues. It might be somewhere where there are people over 65. It might be younger people. So it enables a local body to make that determination as to how they would like to work with online voting. And it was interesting to note that Nick Smith the member opposite had such concerns that this bill wasn't making any fundamental changes. But from that side I also heard great hesitation in making that transition to online voting—great scare that technology would not be able to adapt to democracy and be able to provide that security.We very much heard those concerns during the committee from those members even though we heard so many submissions that really wanted to be able to embrace online voting because of the benefit it provides for participation and because of the benefit it provides for increasing the current low levels of local government engagement that we see right across the country—down to 22 percent in some areas which is really disconcerting. So I think this is a bold bill because it goes to try and take the first step to enable local government to work by making online voting work in a secure way in a way that they feel in control of and in a way that they can determine how to roll that out gradually in order not to move too quickly or too fast. So I think that this does an excellent work.When I think about some of those barriers to local government participation I think of myself. I think of what I did in the last local election. I filled out my form. I read up on all the councillors and who I would like. I ticked my boxes and I put it in the envelope and I put it on the front seat of my car and I drove around with it for over a week because I couldn't find a mailbox. The National Party got rid of them all and we can only get the post three days a week. So the fact that we don't have so many post boxes or such regular mail is a great barrier. So we do need to be moving towards online voting because it will enable more people to be able to go about their daily business in their work and still engage in local government. We shouldn't make it harder for people to vote. We should make it easier for people to vote and that's exactly what this bill does. It gives us a reality check.So specifically it provides a mechanism to limit the risks of trialling a new voting method. Having that data is also a great asset to have for local government. Having better-quality data on voters will give better insight into voter turnout—why people did or did not turn out. Given the last bill that we've just been talking about it will also enable local government to own that area and decide how they're going to design those elections to maximise the turnout particular to their own unique circumstances. It will enable better engagement so I'm proud to see that. An area where we have some of the lowest turnout groups for local government participation are Māori Pasifika and youth and we need to really up that. We totally need to up that and we need to make sure that we just don't continually have the same people representing a wider body that is not reflective of those people. So we want to move away from "pale male and stale". We want to be able to have a far more diverse informed and operating local government that reflects the needs of the community and that builds facilities and things in their area that respond to those needs and I think this bill makes an excellent step of moving in that direction. One of the interesting ones too is it will largely benefit the next generation. The changes that we are putting through now will really be seen in the next group of young people coming up who are so eager to be able to be represented. The communities that are being shaped at local government level in terms of what cycleways or what roads or what parks—if those young people will be benefiting from those it's so important that they have a say in that design and that they have a say in how that community takes shape in order for them to feel part of where they live and for them to grow up in a community that reflects what they want to be. It's really important that we acknowledge the good work that's gone on from officials that enabled us to be able to make necessary changes and—in conclusion—I would also like to acknowledge that we recommended some new contingency mechanisms. There were ongoing concerns raised by members of the National Party in relation to a serious problem occurring in the voting system and so there have been amendments to the bill to enable an extra process in that level should there be a problem. We do see problems sometimes in our local government elections. Here in Wellington I understand there was a rogue postie who pinched a couple of thousand voting forms right during the voting time and that caused a real upheaval. People had to get their envelopes again. So I'm just pointing that out to say that it's not just online voting and not just the internet that has its challenges with meeting the needs of democracy. All forms of voting have those concerns as well. It's up to us as good members of Parliament to be able to make sure that the system is as robust as possible that people participate as much as they can and that we have our local government and central government that work well in unison to give people the best possible services that they need. So without further ado I commend this most excellent local government bill to the House."