Shanks Katrina: Electoral Referendum Bill — Second Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Electoral Referendum Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:15863] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call on the second reading of the Electoral Referendum Bill today. As the Minister of Justice stated earlier this bill received about 1000 submissions. The majority were in favour of supporting this bill in one form or another. 
This bill honours National’s pre-election promise to hold a referendum on the voting system no later than 2011. This bill is interesting because when it comes into law people will get two votes in the referendum that will be held with the general election. The first question people will vote on is whether they wish to keep the current MMP voting system. That is the first vote people get. The second vote people get is on which alternative voting system they would prefer from a list of options if New Zealand were to change to another voting system. 
If the majority of New Zealanders vote to keep MMP then the Government will make the commitment to review MMP to see whether any changes need to be put into that system—that is MMP will stay but the Government will look at the system to see whether it can be improved. But if the majority of the country votes not to have MMP people then get to pick one of the alternative systems that will be listed in one of the two votes in the 2011 referendum. 
If people decide not to vote for MMP the alternatives are FFP or first past the post which is what we had previously; the preferential voting system; the single transferrable vote system; and the supplementary member voting system. We have to ask ourselves how many people out there know what those voting systems actually are and what they represent. 
Grant Robertson 
: How many people in here? 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: I can even ask as a member of Parliament—and the Opposition is saying the same—how many people in this House understand what those voting systems represent. They are complicated. 
Our key message will be education education education. A member of the Opposition who spoke earlier Steve Chadwick said it is all about having civics education in the curriculum. Well it is about that but it is actually greater than that. It is about all 122 of us as members of Parliament going around all our schools going into the classrooms and talking to children about democracy and getting them engaged in understanding it. I already do this in my local schools in Ohariu. It is the kids coming through school who have to understand the system as well. They have to know what democracy is all about. 
I go into my schools in Ohariu. I was at Onslow College just the other day talking about the reform of alcohol laws that is coming in. I was trying to encourage those kids to come in here give a submission be part of the democratic process and get the feeling that they can make a difference. 
We have a big job ahead of us of engaging the public to want to know what these electoral systems are engaging them to make an informed decision and giving the information to them in a way that they can understand it. It was a pleasure to take a call on this bill and I look forward to its next reading. Thank you very much.