Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's my pleasure to speak on this bill which gives the ability for people on the Māori roll and on the general roll to switch between those two rolls at any time with exceptions that I'll come to in a moment. We're moving away from the current situation where it's generally an opportunity once in five years following the census. We look at this in a pragmatic way in the sense that in an ideal world one should be able to choose which roll one is on a little bit more frequently than that and not be locked in waiting for the next census.The idea of it being based around the census was of course related to the very important need to ensure that the number of Māori seats is proportional to the number of people on the Māori roll so that we preserve the principle of equality of voting rights in this country which is that all New Zealanders have an equal say in who governs them and who makes significant decisions about their lives. That's why it has been based on the census so as to get those numbers right. That process will continue but not quite as rigidly as in the past. There will be a particular period once every five years where that number is arrived upon for the purposes of proportionality and that's as it should be.Now the question here was: how do we make it easier? That's a simple thing that we're doing here in this bill. I don't buy some of the arguments that were put forward around saying that all this will increase turnout in voting and things like that. I think fundamentally the primary responsibility for getting people to vote is for the politicians who are seeking their votes. It's the job of the politicians to persuade people to vote for them and if people don't vote in large numbers well that's primarily the fault of the politicians and not somebody else's problem to resolve. That's a challenge for all of us: to persuade people to vote for us.The National Party voted against this bill at the first reading primarily because there weren't any exceptions for the period around general elections and local body elections. When introduced by this Government the bill said that you could change at any time—including on election day itself—between rolls. They had one exception for by-election periods noting—as the previous Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi said—that the risk of tactical roll-switching would occur so that people living in one electorate facing a by-election in either the general or the Māori electorate that they also lived in could switch between the two and engage in the by-election. We thought that that logic applied equally to the period of a general election and local elections and we were concerned that the same sort of tactical roll-switching could occur. The Government at length listened to our argument and brought in the Supplementary Order Paper last night which achieves that. The legislation now means that there is a restriction around the general election period and local election periods so we've indicated that we are prepared to support it. Now this is a slightly unusual set of circumstances because to be honest and frank—let's not beat around the bush—the Government doesn't usually agree to our proposals on these matters and on electoral reform matters. What's different in this case primarily is that our votes are actually needed because this bill required 75 percent of the support of Parliament. Therefore it would not have passed without our support.Now we could have I suppose driven a harder bargain for that vote. For example we could have said Well Minister why don't you apply the same level of bipartisanship to electoral finance rules?" which are being rammed through against our wishes at the moment or we could have driven bargains in all sorts of other areas. We didn't do that because we didn't think that was appropriate because this is a matter regarding the ability of people to switch between rolls and to have their opportunity to vote. So once the Government did agree with our primary concerns we were prepared to vote for it.The only point that I would make is that it's done in goodwill and we do strongly believe that electoral laws should be approached with a genuine attempt to get agreement across the aisle. There are bills currently before the House where the Government hasn't followed that approach and doesn't follow that approach. My suggestion is that they should particularly in the area not just around electoral finance but also around that principle of equal voting rights and what we're seeing is that this bill doesn't disturb that basic fundamental principle that all New Zealanders should have an equal say in who governs them who forms the Government and who makes important decisions about their lives. But that principle of course is under attack right now at the local body elections following the passage of the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill against our implacable hostility. This is a moment of bipartisanship across the House and I don't want to spoil it entirely but we do need to be honest that that bipartisanship doesn't extend to some pretty fundamental issues around how our democracy works in this country. Moving away from the principle of all New Zealanders have equal voting rights is a very significant and we think a very poor and negative move which will make our country poorer and weaker and less cohesive. So we will continue to resist that and I do implore the Government to take a more bipartisanship approach to that fundamental issue than they have so far. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we have some of that partisanship focused on the bill please in the three minutes you have left because we haven't heard much about the bill to date.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Well I hesitate to argue with the Speaker but I don't agree at all with his assessment. We've been talking fundamentally about the voting rights—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Everything but the bill—but if we could have the bill please.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Anyway you've disturbed my train of thought but I'll conclude it there other than to say that we think this is something that we can celebrate as a House. This will be in a small way something that will certainly make it easier for people to switch between the Māori roll and the general roll and that may certainly give greater flexibility to those people in those circumstances. It's all part of ensuring that our electoral system which is one of the most precious things that we have as a country—it is one of the most precious bastions of our freedoms and our democracies and we need to look after that and cherish it and make sure that it works effectively. In so far as this legislation helps with our support then we are happy to support it. Thank you Mr Speaker."