Sage Eugenie: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11023. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. I am pleased to take a short call in the Committee stage of the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) which the Green Party is supporting and that is because the Local Electoral Act is about ensuring a transparent local body electoral process and ensuring that the public can be confident in that process. So we certainly support the thrust of the bill to align the practice at local authority elections with that of general elections and to make those local electoral processes more robust. Certainly capping anonymous donations at $1500 is one example of making them compatible and requiring a third party who receives a donation on behalf of a candidate to disclose the identity of the donor if he or she knows it is another.But I would like to speak to Supplementary Order Paper 215 in my name which would provide for greater consultation when decisions are made to adjourn elections. Clause 21 of the bill inserts new section 73A in the principal Act and it would enable electoral processes to be adjourned in the case of a local or national emergency so that electors are not denied the opportunity to cast a valid vote to nominate a candidate or to accept nomination. The current Act allows elections to be postponed for 14 days and this bill proposes to extend this to 6 weeks and allow that to be rolled over. It is a very serious decision to deprive citizens of the right to vote or to postpone it and we have seen that in Environment Canterbury with the lack of an ability to vote for councillors and with the fact that elections have been postponed indefinitely it seems. The bill as drafted provides for the decision to postpone a local authority election to be made by the Minister of Local Government by Order in Council after consulting the affected local authorities and the affected electoral officer. The Supplementary Order Paper retains this provision but it requires that each affected local authority and its electoral officers must have agreed to the decision to postpone the election and must have advised the Minister of their agreement before an Order in Council can be issued postponing the election.We need this Supplementary Order Paper because Ministers under this National Government have been far too ready to take and keep power to themselves and to wade in and direct councils so that decisions important to local communities are being made increasingly by Ministers rather than by the local councillors whom that community elected. We have certainly seen that in the very sweeping powers that the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery continues to hold in Canterbury and he not the councils ends up signing off on final decisions on a raft of plans programmes and strategies that are critical for the rebuild of Christchurch. We have also seen it in the broken ministerial promise—and I am pleased that the Minister in the chair the Minister for Conservation is the same Minister who was involved in removing democracy in Canterbury—to reinstate elections for Environment Canterbury this year and the decision to introduce legislation that further postpones those elections.So this Supplementary Order Paper provides a check on this ministerial power and it underlines the importance of not depriving our citizens of their right to vote without a very very good reason. This Supplementary Order Paper with the requirement that councils agree to elections being postponed represents a partnership approach to local government which the Green Party believes is absolutely crucial to a healthy and functioning relationship between central and local government unlike this Government which has got a bullying relationship with local government and seems intent on directing local councils to do what Ministers please. So this Supplementary Order Paper which makes sure that councils actually agree to postpone elections brings much more of a partnership approach.Talking briefly about some other clauses in the bill we certainly support the proposed insertion of a requirement that voting papers must include a warning that it isan offence to interfere in any way with anyone who is about to vote. We often take it for granted that there will not be interference with voting but it is appropriate that it is in this bill. But it is very ironic that the Government is sponsoring this bill a bill that highlights that it is an offence to interfere with a person who is about to vote when it has been National and ACT who have so grossly interfered with the right of Cantabrians to vote for their regional council by cancelling that opportunity and extending the term of appointed commissioners. One of the disappointing aspects of the bill is that the Government Supplementary Order Paper 198 does not take the advice of the Justice and Electoral Committee to strengthen new section 103A in clause 27 and ensure that it catches cases where an individual or a company provides discounted advertising to one candidate and then charges everybody else the regular rate and ensures that such donations are disclosed.One of the big gaps in the bill where the Green Party has a concern is the bill’s failure to regulate and modernise the rules governing third-party spending on local body elections. In its report the select committee noted that the bill as introduced did not cover these third-party donations and expenditures and that left a potential gap for third parties to receive donations and use the funds to promote a candidate and potentially to denigrate other candidates without appropriate regulation and without the candidate’s permission. At the moment third parties can spend an unlimited amount to campaign for or against certain candidates and the bill does nothing about that. The select committee concluded that there was not time to implement the changes before the local body elections in October but the Green Party remains disappointed by this major gap in the legislation and commends a member’s bill in the name of my colleague Denise Roche the Local Electoral (Finance) Amendment Bill which would impose a $5000 cap on donations by any person or group. It would regulate third-party donations and it would ban overseas donations.But the Green Party is supporting the Local Electoral Amendment Bill because it does make some improvements to the principal Act and we commend Supplementary Order Paper 215 to implement much more of a partnership arrangement with local government in relation to any postponing of elections. Thank you.