Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Thank you Madam Speaker. First of all I'd just like to make sure that the public become aware that at some stage Dr Nick Smith will start shouting—just so you know. At that moment it is because there is something that has been said that he finds personally offensive or touches a nerve so closely to his own reality that he feels the need to abuse others. So just to be sure at some stage—to the members of the public—you will hear Dr Nick Smith shouting across the House. I wanted to start this contribution by acknowledging those people who step up to be party secretaries. I want to acknowledge those individuals most of whom do it on a voluntary basis and who put themselves at risk actually to be the party secretaries of political parties because they have a belief in that party and what it stands for and they have a belief in that party and the fact that that party needs to be part of the New Zealand political environment. Those people are put at risk by candidates and by political parties who do not follow the electoral rules. The members of the public may not know that it is not the leaders of political parties—Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's a bit rich. Hon TRACEY MARTIN: You can hear Dr Smith laughing now. I don't know who the party secretary is of the National Party but I want you to understand that Dr Smith is laughing about the commitment that you have made and how the actions of candidates when they do not follow electoral law put you at risk. The public may not know that it is the party secretary that signs all declarations around donations. It is the party secretary whose authorisation must be on every billboard and on every advert that must have been run through the party. It is the party secretary when it comes to the candidate returns and the party returns who if they do not follow the law will find themselves in front of the police in front of the Serious Fraud Office and in front of the Electoral Commission. Now Dr Smith is still laughing. I do not understand why Dr Smith dismisses the party secretaries and the responsibility that they take in this way. Hon Dr Nick Smith: Because your leader wants to sue them. He's threatened to sue them. Hon TRACEY MARTIN: See now you can hear Dr Smith shouting. So what I wanted to do was to acknowledge those people—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Why is Winston's lawyer threatening to sue your ex - party president? Hon TRACEY MARTIN: And now Dr Smith is concerned for his own self. He is now talking about the fact that he will not walk outside of this House and make the statements that he made earlier under the protection of this Parliament. He will not do it because he will not put his money where his mouth is. He will not walk outside this House away from the protection of this House and make those statements. I ask the New Zealand public to then decide—Hon Dr Nick Smith: You're a bully. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Dr Smith that's not appropriate. Hon TRACEY MARTIN: —what you think about a person who will not walk outside the House and make the same statements that they will make under parliamentary privilege. I have to say I'm incredibly disappointed with Mr Penk's contribution. When I came into this House there were certain people in this House that said This is the way that you behave. This is the way that you must debate. This is the way you must personalise and attack others." Now I said "No. To the best of my ability I will not do that. I will try my best to stick to the topic." Dr Smith got up and spoke to Mr Penk just before Mr Penk's contribution and I am very saddened that Mr Penk did what Dr Smith asked him to do and that was to stray from the notes. Mr Penk normally gives a very factual and useful contribution to debates. Mr Penk strayed from his notes under the instruction of Dr Smith to attack. That is beneath Mr Penk. He has shown himself to be a better politician than that and I think it's deeply saddening that he has not stood by his own standards has but allowed that senior member of that party to actually digress him from his contribution. I also want to talk about the—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell us about openness in donations. Hon TRACEY MARTIN: You can hear Dr Smith shouting again. Just so the New Zealand public knows that is Dr Nick Smith shouting around a contribution because he feels strongly that actually he's going to be seen for exactly what he is when the New Zealand public have a look at his contribution. I found it very interesting with Dr with Tim Macindoe—sorry. I just about made you a doctor. I apologise Mr Macindoe and it's the Hon Tim Macindoe I believe. I found that very interesting in Mr Macindoe's contribution that he used the words "Using urgency in this instance to screw the scrum". I don't understand if the National Party agrees that there should not be non - New Zealanders making contributions to political parties why this under urgency is screwing the scrum and yet the Minister has attempted to explain to this House on a number of occasions. We have an election in 2020. This House all bar one member is agreed that we do not wish to see non - New Zealanders—I dislike the colonial phrase of "foreigner". We do not wish to see non - New Zealanders have a financial influence on our democracy and so I do not understand what the issue is with regard to screwing the scrum that Mr Macindoe talked about. There were a couple of other technical points inside of this bill which are that a party secretary or any person acting in the position of the secretary must live in New Zealand and that will not be a hardship for any political party. I don't believe it will be a hardship for any political party because our party secretaries are such committed individuals to New Zealand democracy to—Hon Dr Nick Smith: The New Zealand First president resigned. Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Again you can hear Dr Smith shouting out with regard to that. Now again I'm talking about party secretaries. He seems to get incredibly upset when I talk about these very dedicated people to the democracy of New Zealand but he continues to shout when I talk about party secretaries. If I was the party secretary of the National Party I would really be careful if my future or my responsibilities lay in the hands of that particular individual. The other thing that the bill does is that the offence of promoting anonymous advertisements relating to an election is extended so that it applies to all advertising mediums including online advertising in order to deter misleading anonymous online advertisements. Now I don't think that any New Zealander having looked at some of the elections overseas will concern themselves or will believe that that is not necessary. We are moving into an environment where election campaigns are being run in the digital space—completely being run in the digital space—therefore our electoral laws must be updated to manage that space. They must be updated to make sure that the integrity of our democracy is maintained. Again I say every member bar one agrees with this piece of legislation. Every member bar one has said that yes this needs to happen. The reality is there is an inquiry that for whatever reason—and I don't know what reason it is—is still inside a select committee. I have no knowledge of why it's still inside a select committee 500-and-something days later but we have an election coming. We have seen in elections held recently in other Western nations that there has been interference—I'm going to have to say "foreign" now because they are not non - New Zealanders—by foreign powers. We have seen that there have been ways that digital media and digital promotion have been used to manipulate democracy. I note that Dr Smith is now giving instructions to the Hon Tim Macindoe so I have no doubt that the Hon Tim Macindoe will now also get up and decide to personalise this debate. I think it's a sad day when a senior member of a major political party in New Zealand is able to manipulate the calibre of his colleagues to participate in a way that I know they would not normally do. I have no idea why Mr Macindoe and Mr Penk would lower themselves to such a level and I think it's a very sad day for those two gentlemen that they have lost their way and that they follow the instructions of Dr Nick Smith rather than participating. I just want to point out to the New Zealand public that Mr Penk just pretended to cry. So we can see the incredible seriousness with which the National Party has decided to take our democracy. They have every right to debate and object. They're not objecting; they're voting for the bill. They are now deciding to use the time they have to minimise our democracy to minimise the importance of non - New Zealand interference and to minimise the importance of making sure that anonymous adverts cannot be put into place so that we know who is trying to act against us. They're going to take this time to minimise. What a deep shame it is for that party to have fallen so low."