SpeechHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on behalf of New Zealand First on the Referendums Framework Bill. That was a very impassioned speech. We have had some impassioned contributions from the Opposition and the words used by Nicola Willis the member who has just resumed her seat were overturning convention". I guess what I would say about convention is that if the world doesn't continue to move on and grow and change then some of the things that are negative and bad we would carry forward from the 1800s or the 1600s. The world continues to evolve and this Parliament must continue to evolve. One of the reasons I believe that the Opposition are so incredibly sort of excited about this piece of legislation—which they are being consulted on because it's a bill inside the House that they are talking on right now. So literally they are part of the consultation process on the Referendums Framework Bill. But the next piece that is important—and this is what's important to New Zealand First—is that for years now referendum questions have been able to be manipulated. We agree with the Opposition around that particular topic. What we're hoping for and what we believe that the Referendums Framework Bill delivers to New Zealand is an opportunity for New Zealanders to finally have placed in front of them Cabinet papers and draft pieces of legislation so that they are fully informed before this House decides what this House believes on it. It is so that the New Zealand public can have their say and that is the situation where New Zealand First is moving to around the referendum on recreational marijuana that has been indicated to be held at the 2020 election. When we talk about the referendum Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that is going to be discussed that has been put in under New Zealand First's name around the End of Life Choice Bill that was also to give the New Zealand public all the pieces of information that this Parliament has when it chooses to make a decision. If that SOP is successful it would not be enacted until the New Zealand public has had an opportunity to scrutinise the bill and the regulatory impact statement and the submissions that were given to the select committee over the 16 months would be in the public domain. The New Zealand public would have exactly the same amount of information as this Parliament has had around that particular piece of legislation. They could decide finally—if that Supplementary Order Paper is successful—at a referendum whether that legislation should be enacted or not. But to do that this Referendums Framework Bill must go through in the form that it is in because up until this point we have not had the opportunity to provide the New Zealand public with these pieces of information for them to make that decision. We know that questions around referenda have previously been manipulated to give a positive or a negative outcome. So from New Zealand First's perspective who has—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Why not send it to Parliament? Send it to Parliament.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Parliament cannot be trusted on this issue at times Mr Smith and particularly I would say the reason why Mr Smith is so adamant that Parliament should set the question is because we know that the Opposition has a view on the medicinal cannabis referendum and does not want the New Zealand public to have the opportunity to discuss that topic. So we have already seen the Opposition in this time extend the End of Life Choice Bill for over 16 months in an attempt to make sure that the New Zealand public cannot get an opportunity to discuss this.It is our view—New Zealand First's view—that what we need to give the New Zealand public is the opportunity for a question where they can decide either on a Cabinet paper and a draft piece of legislation or on a piece of legislation that this House has decided that they like but yet it is of such moment that it must be put to the New Zealand public. This is what this Referendums Framework Bill does: it provides us with that opportunity to try something different to actually give the New Zealand public the opportunity to have a dialogue. It gives us the opportunity to try something different to improve the relationship between this Parliament and the New Zealand public. It gives us the opportunity to say to the New Zealand public "We trust you. If we trusted you enough to elect us here surely we trust you enough to read the same documents we read to read the same submissions we read to read the same regulatory impact statements we read and to make up your own mind." And that is why New Zealand First will support the Referendums Framework Bill."