SpeechELECTORAL (INTEGRITY REPEAL) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): I move That the Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. Madam Assistant Speaker Dyson having been here for quite some time—not quite as long as yourself—I have put a few bills into the members' ballot system and finally with one week to go have had this bill withdrawn from the ballot. Hon Member: There's a God. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: There is a God. I haven't canvassed other political parties and I acknowledge that Labour advanced the legislation I'm attempting to repeal early in 2018 but I'm certainly hoping all members will give careful consideration to this bill because this bill attempts to actually put integrity back into our electoral system. It's about improving the integrity of our system. To become a member of Parliament isn't easy and having got here whether you come as an Independent—which is a very fraught way—or you come as a member of Parliament you come with a conscience. You come with a responsibility to form an opinion on issues and to speak with your conscience if you're a list MP or if you're an electorate MP to speak with a conscience that represents the people that elected you to this House. Though this bill is about allowing MPs to exercise that conscience it's about not coming to this Parliament to simply be—as some members of Parliament have described in the past—cannon fodder or a puppet to a political party. Now we all know the history of this legislation that I'm attempting to change today. It was the price of the current Government—the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government—doing a deal with New Zealand First and I know why he needs that sort of control. History tells us. I was the junior whip in this Parliament in 1998 when the New Zealand First Party which at that stage had gone into a coalition arrangement with the National Government split apart. They had 17 members and eight members used their conscience over an issue—a single issue—which was the sale of a portion of Wellington Airport. Eight of those members used their conscience and said that they were not prepared to support the command—the command—that came from their leader the Rt Hon Winston Peters. So every time he's gone into Government since he's advanced this sort of legislation which is simply about his mechanism—his personal mechanism—to control a member of his caucus. Now I have been here long enough and have been part of my caucus and I think I know how other caucuses work. When you have discussion on policy items and when you have some dissent you have some argument and you actually come to a better position within a caucus but the Rt Hon Winston Peters doesn't believe in that. Most of the parties that operate in this place operate in a democratic fashion. You have your caucuses you come to a position democratically and you walk out of that caucus whether or not you supported the position but you adopt the position. As a member of that caucus you have the responsibility and in fact the privilege of electing your leader and electing your deputy leader and electing your whips but that's not how the New Zealand First Party wants to operate. So the inability of Mr Peters in the past to control his caucus is what this legislation is about and I don't think that is right. I think that impinges on the very human right of an elected representative. Over the last five years in the time I've spent here—it's been in fact over the last eight years—I've been deeply involved with the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The Inter-Parliamentary Union—the IPU—has membership from 179 countries. It effectively represents about 45000 elected representatives all around the world and as a contributor to the IPU I was privileged—and in fact I'm the first New Zealander to be in this position. I was elected by the IPU as one member of a 10-member committee which investigates the abuses of elected representatives around the world. This legislation which I'm attempting to repeal today which is in cohorts or did put us in cohorts with countries like Tanzania countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo countries like Zimbabwe and countries like Venezuela and I say to all members that as we debate this tonight think about why you are in this Chamber. Come with your conscience. Respect discussion that occurs in your caucus but ultimately come to a view and do not ever—ever—become controlled by your party leader. I read through all of the Hansards of the first reading the second reading and the third reading as this legislation passed through the House in 2018 and one of the spurious arguments advanced by the Hon Andrew Little and by the New Zealand First representative—I think it was Darroch Ball that spoke in most of the debates—was that this legislation was all about protecting the proportionality that the voters delivered at the start of an electoral term. Well if you really believe that argument Winston Peters why did you then contest the Northland by-election in 2015 and go out of your way—and successfully—to defeat the proportionality that had been delivered by the voters of New Zealand in 2014? And there was no answer to that. He did what he was entitled to do to contest a by-election but in contesting that by-election he changed quite significantly the proportionality of Parliament that the voters had delivered in 2014. No problem with that—he was entitled to do it. But don't come into this Parliament arguing as we debate this bill tonight that it's all about recognising and respecting the decisions that have made by voters on election night because it's not. It's simply about a disciplinary measure. It's about controlling the MPs because his own history of controlling people doesn't give credit. I want to just in conclusion in my last couple of minutes note for the House the number of times dissension has actually been significant and relevant to the New Zealand parliamentary process. I can think myself long before I was here of Marilyn Waring in 1984. She threatened to cross the floor and caused the well-known snap election that caused the end of the Muldoon era. Jim Anderton was a loyal member of the Labour Party until he argued that the Labour Party had left him and his principles so he set up The Alliance. Dame Tariana Turia one of the most respected members of Parliament I've had the privilege of working with didn't agree with the Labour Party. She said so walked out and started her own party—the Māori Party—which made a significant contribution to New Zealand's democracy. And Mr Peters himself a member of the National caucus disagreed with National walked out formed his own party and no one can argue that it hasn't been a significant contributor to New Zealand politics over that time. So there will be robust debate around this bill. I certainly hope the Green Party will be careful with its contribution and will deliberate carefully because I note as I read their contributions last time that they were never comfortable with being forced into the position of supporting this legislation.