Dyson Ruth: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5486. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills):Tēnā koe e te Heamana. I first tried to get the call on this legislation at I think around 4 o’clock so thank you very much for choosing me at last Mr Chairman. It is a great pleasure to speak to Part 2 of the New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill. It is Māori Language Week as we all know and I think it has been one of the better weeks for celebrating Māori language that we have had in this Parliament. There have been a lot of really excellent contributions. So I will acknowledge “Wīremu Pākehā” whose name is on the New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill but I have also heard the bill described during the debate—not yet on Part 2 but now to be on Part 2—as the kaupapa whakapihapiha in the name of “Hone Kī” and that is spelt K-i not Key which means of course the vanity project of the Prime Minister.This part Part 2 is very wide ranging. It goes from clause 10 right through to clause 66A and as you indicated earlier Mr Chairperson it covers the processing of the referendums ranging from the issuing of ballot papers the types—it obviously specifies the subject consistent with what we have discussed earlier in Part 1—right through to the appointment of officers. There are many questions for me that have been raised during this debate already and I would be very appreciative if the Minister who is currently in the chair Todd McClay could make an effort to get some information from his officials and pass it on to the Committee of the whole House particularly for the benefit of those of us who were not sitting on the Justice and Electoral Committee.I am really interested as to why we seem to have brand new provisions in this part relating to issues that have arisen in numerous other voting procedures. So we have the new way of appointing officials; we have a different voting period; and we have obviously the specificity for the second flag referendum as opposed to the first flag referendum. That is understandable because we have not had a flag referendum before but why do we have for example the new dispatching provisions of voting papers? Why do we have this extraordinary situation where the only way that you can use this modern fax machine to get your voting paper or have it emailed to you is if you happen to be “on Tokelau Campbell Island or Raoul Island; or (ii) in the Ross Dependency; or (iii) on a fishing vessel or naval vessel; or (iv) in some remote location overseas;”? What is that about? We have computers and we have fax machines in the South Island and I would really appreciate it if we could be considered as part of this too.My point is—and the Minister who is now in the chair Michael Woodhouse may wish to pick this up get some advice from his officials and relay—are these provisions consistent with other provisions in electoral legislation; and if so why are they duplicated in this which is not consistent with best practice in drafting legislation? If they are not the same as we have and if we do not have the same dispatching of voting paper provisions and we do not have the same criteria for when people are able to get papers emailed or faxed or dictated to them why is that the case?Exactly the same question applies in terms of advertising. I was very surprised to see that there appears to be no limit on the ability of people to promote a particular favourite in this. We have been very rigorous in New Zealand in ensuring that money does not buy votes. It is quite fundamental. We know that more exposure able to be generated only by more money or by access to the media is likely to generate a familiarity that will then translate into votes. So why do we not have in this legislation any advertising curtailment or any limit on the amount of money that can be spent? Not only is there no limit on that during the period leading into the referendum but what about when the panel of 12 people I think it is who have been so busy spending taxpayers’ money having meetings all around the country—what about when they choose their top four flags? What ability are they going to have to promote those?