Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Madam Chair for this opportunity to take this call. I would like to start by responding to the call that Minister Andrew Little took a few speeches before. One thing he talked about was a review. Yes we are giving several suggestions in our Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) to review this legislation after it has gone through and after an election because this is legislation which we are strongly opposing and we have the backing of New Zealanders to oppose this legislation. That is why we want some kind of review after an election—not the kind of reviews that the Labour Party is doing 152 or 154 reviews at the cost of millions of dollars because those reviews are about just going out and researching some basic policy ideas which we do through connecting with our people during the term not through reviews. But this is an Act which we strongly oppose.Another point that the Minister made was about the Hon Dr Nick Smith's comment about officials. I want to ask the Minister in the chair whether he made that kind of comment to the Hon Phil Twyford as well when the Hon Phil Twyford said something on the lines of Treasury staff are like kids. So it would be very interesting to know what the stand was that the Minister took when the Hon Phil Twyford made that comment about Treasury officials. That was a very disrespectful comment and I would like to know from the Minister if he holds the same position on that comment made by the Hon Phil Twyford.The Minister completely dismissed our SOP 76 on the basis that yes the select committee does the review so this could become part of the terms of reference for the review that will happen after the next election. Why leave such an important matter to the terms of reference? If the Minister is fully supportive he has to take full side of this SOP and say that yes this will become part of the legislation; otherwise it's just dismissing the SOP that has been put forward by members on our side. We care about transparency we care about openness we care about the integrity of our electoral system and we care about public confidence and that is why we have done all this work which actually the Minister should have done through these SOPs which affect the debate that is happening now. So we have given several options. The select committee option has been dismissed by the Minister saying that this could become a part of the terms of reference. But we know that when the terms of reference are decided they will be based on the numbers which we will have on that committee from the Government side and if it is—hopefully it's not that Government; it will be this side and we will definitely include—Chris Penk: Yes.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: —yes exactly—this in the terms of reference. But we want the assurance from this Minister because without that assurance I do not see that the Minister is actually willing that we should have any kind of review on this legislation after the election.Now that brings us because that has been dismissed to other options that are provided to the Minister to maintain the integrity of our system. So if you look at our election system yes we know that parties play a very important role—and actually the central role the main role—in preparing towards an election. They select their candidates they decide if candidates are going to stand in certain seats or they are just going to be list-only candidates. They could be candidates standing in seats and they could be list just like me. Then after the candidate is ticked off we put a nomination to the Electoral Commission and if the nomination has not gone through the Electoral Commission that candidate does not appear on the party's list. That is how open a process is when we go towards any general election. So people before they vote for a party or candidate can see who is on that list. That's the kind of transparency we are asking for because by having the review done now that the select committee is dismissed the next level is the Electoral Commission because the rest of the process is handled by the Electoral Commission. It will be really good to see that the Electoral Commission gets this included on the list of things that they do—that is to review this legislation—because it's important that people know what's going to happen in the next election. The Electoral Commission actually looks at the integrity of the whole system. We want someone independent and the Electoral Commission does that quite well in an independent manner when we go to a general election and so why not have the Electoral Commission if the Minister has dismissed the select committee reviewing this legislation after an election?Public confidence is very important. In this legislation the whole of the legislation we know this legislation is not about the public. This legislation is not about New Zealanders; this legislation is about members in Government especially the Rt Hon Winston Peters. The Labour Party and the Green Party have no option. They are just supporting the Rt Hon Winston Peters because he knows that he will be left alone by many members of his party during this term so he just wants to protect his stand his position as the Deputy Prime Minister of this country. So this legislation has nothing to do with people.