Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): That was a very nasty and quite unnecessary contribution to the debate from a member who's only been here for five minutes and frankly knows nothing.The reality is that the Government's hiding something. That's why the bill is here. We all know that. Why would a bill that affects so little does so little be in the House under urgency for the place to consider it for it not to become effective in one part until 1 January and in another part until 1 April? It's complete rubbish it's a total distraction and it is an absolute nonsense that when the issue that is being considered by so many out there in the public at the moment—the issue of anonymous donations to political parties focused at the moment very much on New Zealand First—the amendment laid in the House by the Hon Dr Nick Smith was totally rejected by the other side of the House.We have no problem with there being a reach into foundations political action groups trusts or any other construction that people might like to put around a political party and its funding stream. But apparently all the Government parties do. It's interesting to note that one of the biggest recipients of foreign donations undeclared anonymous foreign donations is the Green Party; the very party that's railed against all sorts of electoral excesses for decades now comes into the House and exempts themselves effectively through this legislation from the scrutiny that any outside political action group might come under should they make a donation to the Green Party.And then of course we know about the missing $840000 from the 2017 election in the New Zealand First Party and the Electoral Commission is looking into that at the moment. But under this legislation there's no problem for an organisation like that. No problem at all.We in our party declare all donations to the foundation that we have supporting us. We don't make any bones about that. And yes it is a capital structure and we do use the interest for political purposes but it's all declared.So why is it that New Zealand First blocked today—blocked today—a provision that could have gone into this bill that would have made the good practice law? So it's really very interesting for us to be in a position where we support the bill because we want transparency. But we find interestingly that the number of declared anonymous donations over a long period of time averaged about $66. So we're in here making a $16 difference to the level at which a current average donation is made. We know some are bigger because that is average. Some are much smaller. But it really makes the point that if you aren't going to have a bill that looks at every aspect of funding going to political parties then it's a bit of a nonsense to say it is an amendment bill to make the greater security around New Zealand elections to ensure that there are no outside bodies influencing the political process. No one has any idea where that $840000 came from except the people inside New Zealand First who received it or the people inside their foundation who received it. What we do know is that there should be a greater reach and understanding of where those influences—that can be at least made accusation about—come from.It's also a bit we think odd that we're going to have a three-week period now between when the bill gets its Royal assent—probably later today—and when the bill comes into effect. Now you could take out your few statutory days around Christmas and Boxing Day perhaps the Sundays and the weekends but it gives effectively 15 or 16 working days where these donations can be solicited can be received and do not have to be declared if they're going into the political party above the levels that are currently prescribed.It's interesting that the only party that did not declare any donations last election over the specific amount was New Zealand First and I don't believe there were 840 people out there who gave them a thousand dollars each. That's just too hard for me to believe.Nevertheless that will be part of the ongoing discussion. We support this bill but it's not adequate and it does miss the point. We do know it is here as a distraction.