Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill. Can I start by acknowledging my colleague Nick Smith who has brought this bill to this House because he believes in democracy a value which all members of this House should believe in and passionately believe in. That is something in which I know Nick Smith will leave this House with that legacy intact.This bill is an important piece of legislation. This bill is about undoing the shameful legacy of Winston Peters but the fact that the Government still want to keep this bill on our law books shows that Winston Peters still has something over this Government. I think that is absolutely shameful. This piece of legislation should have been the first piece of legislation this Government got rid of once Winston Peters was not required to support them into Government. We know the dead rats that were swallowed by the Green Party to get this legislation on to our law books in the first place but at least the Green Party have had the courage of their convictions to put this bill to select committee in the last Parliament so that it could be removed in a new Parliament where Winston Peters was no longer there. But the Labour Party do not have the courage and do not have the moral fortitude to actually do what is right—to do what is right: to ensure that our Parliament actually gets rid of this undemocratic piece of legislation.When we talk about morals this Government fails to stand up for the morals of this country and the democracy of this country which is actually what is important and is what is required. The Attorney-General said that this piece of legislation has a chilling effect on our democracy and whilst we heard from the previous speaker a nice speech—and I'm not sure whether it was about this piece of legislation or another piece of legislation—what she failed to do was actually talk about the submitters who came to speak to the select committee. Respected experts from across New Zealand came to submit and said this piece of legislation needs to go through. The waka-jumping legislation must be gotten rid of. We had the New Zealand Law Society five law faculties four departments of politics three schools of history and a joint submission of 15 university academics on this member's bill all enthusiastically in favour of it. Those members of our community—respected members of our community—people who believe fundamentally in our democratic principles the freedom of expression and the freedom of members of Parliament they supported this piece of legislation because they understand how chilling it can be. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) the lead expert body on best parliamentary practice vehemently opposes such integrity laws. Most members of the New Zealand Parliament are part of the IPU and Louisa Wall who is the chairperson of the IPU in New Zealand she should be standing up and supporting this piece of legislation not voting it down. But because of this piece of legislation she's probably concerned that that could have an impact on her role. It has a chilling impact when issues of principle come before this Parliament.The current piece of legislation would be in breach of the United States Canadian and Australian constitutions. It would even breach basic law of Germany the home of the mixed-member proportional electoral system. But here in New Zealand for some unknown reason this Labour Government seeks to continue putting this piece of legislation through and allowing it to stay on the books and that is something which we on this side of the House will call out and will say Shame on this Government for keeping this legislation in this House." What has Winston Peters got over this Government that they feel the need to continue to have this piece of legislation on the books of this House?Dr Duncan Webb: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Mr Brown seems to be suggesting there is some illicit motive behind the Government's actions and that's in breach of Standing Orders. I would seek for him to withdraw and apologise.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The member will just give me a moment. I thank the member for that point of order. I ask the member to withdraw and apologise.SIMEON BROWN: I withdraw and apologise. The Labour Party did not have this policy on their manifesto going into the 2020 election. They didn't say to New Zealanders whether or not they were going to support this piece of legislation. Even in the Clark years they said this type of legislation should only be there for a transitional period of time. But now they're saying they want to bake this piece of legislation in for no known reason other than that they want to keep it on our law books. The vague idea that this Government wants to put proportionality of this Parliament ahead of democracy is something that this Government should be absolutely ashamed of. The National Party will stand for our democracy our democratic principles and we will support this piece of legislation because it actually is what upholds democratic institutions in New Zealand. I support this piece of legislation."