Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:620;Page:16164] 
2.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister of Local Government 
: Why did he tell the House yesterday that he had no responsibility for the “shambles” with the local body elections when earlier this year he told a Local Government conference that work towards planning for the introduction of STV was a “successful partnership” between central and local government and when in October 2002 he said that a joint central and local government team had been “actively involved in the implementation of the STV option”? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 Because it is true. How can I personally be responsible for a contract let by a local authority to a company over which I have absolutely no control whatsoever? 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Does the Minister recall using the word “partnership” 36 times in recent speeches to describe the relationship between central government and local government—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is the one and only warning and that is it for the day. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You will recall very well yesterday that you booted me out for exactly that offence. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Yes after another of the member’s colleagues had made a statement that I allowed that person to get away with. Would the member please ask his supplementary question. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Does the Minister recall using the word “partnership” 36 times in recent speeches when describing the relationship between central government and local government including at least six times in respect of the introduction of single transferable vote (STV); if so what sort of partnership is it when the moment anything goes wrong he says it has nothing to do with him? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: This Government values its relationship with local government and I am continuing to work closely with councils to try to resolve this deplorable situation. 
David Parker 
: What has been the trend in the proportion of informal votes cast in prior local body elections? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: In 1989 the proportion of informal votes was 4.6 percent in 1992 it was 5.4 percent in 1995 it was 5.8 percent and in 1998 it was 5.9 percent falling to 4.1 percent in 2001. Under National it would seem that informal vote rates appear to have steadily increased. It is quite a different picture from the one presented yesterday by National’s Nick Smith. 
Jim Peters 
: As the Minister who was responsible for the Local Government Act 2002 and the Local Electoral Amendment Act of 2002 what care does the Minister have for the 100000 New Zealanders whose votes were cast on Saturday and now appear to be disallowed? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: As Minister of Local Government I am responsible for establishing the regulatory laws and regulations that cover this process. If I thought I was responsible for the counting problems I would be doing it myself. 
Keith Locke 
: Does the Minister stand by his statement made yesterday that the counting of STV votes went well in much of the country including Auckland where the biggest number of votes were cast and does he endorse the comments in this morning’s  
Dominion Post  
that where the counting of STV votes was done locally it was done very well and the problem arose in farming out the counting to some bigger central agencies? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: Yes. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How could the Minister say yesterday that there were no problems with STV in areas that did not use Datamail such as the Auckland District Health Board area when 12349 votes have been discarded 15 times more than at the prior election when there were 850 invalid votes under first past the post and is he aware that the company that is counting the votes is estimating that 100000 votes will be biffed in the bin as a consequence of his dopey law? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I have already released figures showing that informal voting has been an increasing problem for some time. That member has been trumpeting figures about. Let me give some figures that have come through which are final counts. In the STV elections for the Taranaki District Health Board invalid votes came to just 5.8 percent. It seems to vary from one part of the country to another. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why did his department consider it appropriate to work closely with Datamail and Electionz.com on the development of the programme to calculate the result of the STV election but not on the system for processing the votes when this is akin to checking the motor but not checking the tyres on a car and was this omission by his department not one of the reasons he must share the responsibility for this election debacle? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: Yesterday that member claimed that my officials were involved in assessing and testing the faulty data-processing system. That is simply not true. Does that member just make things up? 
David Parker 
: Has informal voting been a problem in all the recent local authority elections using the STV system? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: No. Available figures for three of the mayoralties that used STV show that in Kaipara the result was 0.78 percent informal votes Papakura 0.56 percent and Thames-Coromandel 0.56 percent. I have confidence that New Zealand voters are intelligent and can cope with the STV voting system—a view apparently not shared by Dr Nick Smith. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Although I am not seeking leave to table all the speeches in which Mr Chris Carter talked about “partnership” I do seek the leave of the House to table his speech to the Society of Local Government Managers in which he talks about the great partnership with local government nine times. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that speech. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek the leave of the House given the questions the Minister has raised about my election figures to table the Department of Internal Affairs  
Local Authority Election Statistics 2001 
. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek the leave of the House to table the provisional results for the election for the Auckland District Health Board that show that 12349 votes were invalid. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek the leave of the House to table this last document given the Minister’s question about the role of Datamail which is the article in the  
National Business 
Review 
 in which the general manager of Datamail claimed that the company had worked closely with local government on developing— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that article. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I seek leave to table statistics from the Department of Internal Affairs clearly demonstrating that in the period when National was in Government in the 1990s informal voting was becoming a serious problem. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is.