McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I stand on behalf of ACT to speak to the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Bill. We said in our first reading speech that we were not in support of this bill even though we recognise the need to be more flexible around the way that Māori can change electoral rolls. While we do recognise this and we want to be able to support it we do not believe that being able to change whenever you want through cycle is adequate and therefore we will continue to oppose this bill. Now listening to earlier speeches I hear from across the House that there is a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that's coming that may actually address this issue. But in actual fact the conversation was not had with all of the parties across this House so because we are not in knowledge of what is proposed to be on the SOP we are not in a position to change our position on this bill and even so we would like to see what that SOP actually states before we decide whether or not to support it. Hearing about it today is unfortunate. You would think once there is discussion being held about such an important piece of legislation that in fact everybody would be involved in that discussion. I thought that it was actually really quite confusing for some to find out what is the problem here that's trying to be addressed and I thought I would try and make it as plain English as possible—plain language as possible—because it is quite difficult for some to understand how the process works and why it is impractical and inflexible the way that it is. Of course what usually happens is that every five years we have a census and after the census there is a four-month period where Māori can either go on to the Māori electoral roll or go on to the general roll. It's only a very small area of time—four months—and it must only occur at this present stage straight after the census. The commission then sends the rolls to the Government Statistician after that period and the Government Statistician then sends data from this on to the electorates and the commission then having received this data back makes up the electorates. This is why it is so fundamental to make sure that there is 75 percent agreement across the House when we start to look at making changes such as this because it's entrenchment really that we have within our electoral system to ensure that there is no playing of it by one political party of the day. It stops a majority Government for example from trying to rig anything in their own advantage. So we believe that there is the ability to change and be able to support this bill and that is based upon the lines of being able to ensure that when Māori make a change they make that change for a three-year period. That then encompasses the local body elections and it encompasses the by-elections and the move into the general election. Effectively what it says is that if we can make that decision for that general election period then we should do so for the three years—put both feet in the water and stick to it. But we do recognise that five years is just impractical and it's not good for anybody to be stuck into a system that they cannot get out of. So if we were able to change once every three years heading into the electoral cycle then we could look to support this. However we have not seen the SOP and we have not been part of any discussions across the House as to potential changes to enable parties like ACT to support it. So at this stage on the second reading and until we see that SOP as I said we cannot support it. I just want to make mention about some of the submissions that came in including one from the Wairoa District Council. They had concerns about administration work that would be incumbent upon them should they get multiple people trying to change multiple times throughout their electorate. The commission had said that they did not believe that that would be a problem. However the council identified that their grassroots would be the ones having to deal with it and this is part of the reason why we support the change but only once every three years. So on that note I will just say that we look forward to seeing the SOP. We hope that it will reflect what we would like to see as well so that we too would be able to support going into the third reading. But until then our minds are quite firm: we do not support this bill at this stage in its current format. Thank you.