McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand to speak on the Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill on behalf of the ACT Party. Mr Rawiri Waititi we're not supporting this bill tonight. We're not supporting the bill but we do congratulate you on having your bill pulled from the ballot box.Now I do want to reply to a couple of things that have been said in the House this evening including the fact that while some may think that Māori have been disadvantaged in New Zealand with the right to vote I'm actually quite proud that we are one of the countries in the world that allowed women to vote first. And that included Māori women.We were also one of the first countries in the world to allow indigenous people to have the vote. It's not been all bad; it's been pretty darn good actually and something I'm proud of and proud to participate in.I remember when I first signed up on the electoral roll when I was living in Rotorua and I didn't understand the difference between the Māori roll and the general roll. I thought because I was a Māori I had to sign up on the Māori roll. Then I read the fine print and understood I didn't have to do that. I read I understood I asked questions. That's what a lot of people do and I get tired of being felt like I'm a dumb Māori because I'm a Māori. I think that we need to actually enlighten ourselves and realise we are very capable people and have achieved a heck of a lot in the 180 years that we have had this constitutional right to be able to vote.Now while we don't support the bill we do support one concept within it—and not all of it—and my colleagues across the House have addressed this as well. And that is that we do believe it's not right that you can only change the roll that you're on every five years.We think that's inadequate it's not flexible enough and that that should be changed. And we are debating at the moment in the House the Government's bill that's going through. We will as a party look to address the upcoming Supplementary Order Paper and have discussions around that as well because we do believe that there should be a change but not the ability to just be able to change whenever you want over a three-year cycle.Part of the reason why—and I did go through this last night but I will go through it for the benefit of this bill. We have a constitutional way of being able to administer how we vote. This includes having a census which is every five to six years. Then after that there is only a very small window of four months where Māori can change rolls. The ones I've heard of are mostly wanting to get off the Māori roll not get on it but it's a person's individual choice to make and they should be able to. But that four-month window is inadequate and it's so small.The commission then sends the rolls to the Statistician after that period and the Statistician then sends data back on to the electorates and the commission then makes up the electorates. So when we look at what the member wishes to do in his second plan—which is to change the redraw of electoral boundaries—it's actually not as simple as doing that. You have to work within the constitutional process. So we wouldn't be able to do that piece anyway under what he is wanting.Also the third bullet point that the member has wanted to do is put an automatic placement on the Māori roll for members if they don't choose which one. And I don't agree with that. The ACT Party does not agree with that that just because you tick a box that you're Māori; if you don't choose which roll you want to go on you automatically go on to the Māori roll. There were some good examples that were delivered last night as to why that should not happen including if you move yourself from your own rohe to a new one and don't wish to vote on the Māori electorate in that new rohe.Changing the name of the general roll to a non-Māori roll well that doesn't suit ACT's multi-ethnic society that we believe that we are in. It's not about being Māori or non-Māori; in fact non-Māori is absolutely negative—it's a negative connotation. We would like to see words that are used that encompass everybody—all of New Zealanders—because that's the way forward in this country. So while we commend the member for having his bill drawn—because it's not easy to do—we commend the debate that he wants to have; this is the place to have it. We unfortunately though will not be supporting this bill.