Wall LouisaParts 1 and 2 schedules 1 and 2 and clauses 1 and 2LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): As members of the Justice and Electoral Committee we have debated and deliberated both the Broadcasting (Election Programmes and Election Advertising) Amendment Bill and also this the Electoral Amendment Bill. What I specifically wanted to read into the Hansard and what I wanted the Minister in the chair the Hon Mark Mitchell to confirm is this from our select committee report. I am going to read it: Māori Electoral Option We note that the bill does not respond to the Inquiry's recommendation that the Government enable electors of Māori descent to change roll type once each electoral cycle by providing for the Māori Electoral Option to take place every three years. We consider that implementing this recommendation would increase the ability of Māori to participate meaningfully in the election process. We received confirmation from the Minister of Justice that the Government would look at this issue for inclusion in a subsequent bill intended to occur before the 2020 general election. We would like to see this issue progressed in time for the 2020 election."I want to have some confirmation from the Minister of that fact because as I noted earlier there were 28 recommendations and this bill actually encapsulates 12 of those. We have worked I think collaboratively to ensure that the necessary changes have been implemented for the 2017 general election and I think the committee has taken its responsibility quite seriously in terms of working with the Electoral Commission and ensuring that all New Zealanders actually actively participate in our democratic process.I want to take the opportunity to highlight one change that this bill will promote and that is allowing electoral officials to use an online electronic roll look-up and roll mark-off function in voting places to enable real-time checking of voters' enrolment status in polling places. The reason I highlight that is that we were told today in the select committee that over the last two elections early voting which opens 2 weeks before election day has gone from 14 percent in 2011 to just under 30 percent in 2014 and it is anticipated to reach 50 percent this year. That is actually incredibly significant. I want to pick up the comments of the Minister in the Chair earlier about our recommendation as a committee to allow enrolment on election day and embedding this practice so that in the subsequent piece of legislation we do allow enrolment on election day. For 27000 New Zealanders who chose to vote on election day and were not enrolled their vote actually was not counted was not part of the democratic process to determine who the ruling party is and therefore who the Prime Minister of our country is and also who the representative whom they want to represent them here in this House is.All of us are here because of the mandate of the people whom we are here to serve and I think quite genuinely that we do have some challenges to the democratic process. We were told today that we have 90 percent enrolment but in fact we have got a huge problem at the moment with young voters—young people aged between 18 and 24. There are nearly 40000 of those young people who are not enrolled. So you know if we do not address these issues then in the future I think we are undermining the integrity of the process that enables us to speak in this House to actually represent the needs and aspirations and interests of our constituents.There are a number of things that this bill is trying to achieve that we obviously agree with but I thought it was incumbent on me to particularly speak to those two points because they are issues that I think are fundamental to the integrity of our electoral system going forward. Any new and innovative ways we can have to encourage people to firstly enrol because that is the first challenge and then secondly to actively participate by voting—it is incumbent upon us to do as much as we can.We were told that in terms of e-voting and the use of modern technology—so this is enabling people to vote over the internet or to vote via text message—no jurisdiction in the world has currently got a regime that is safe enough for us to be able to move into that mode of engagement with our citizens. But it is something that the Electoral Commission has on its work programme. It definitely spoke about it today but I do not think we are at the point where we can for example enable that. And I can understand why because if we have not got a secure platform then actually that does undermine the integrity of the system. It means that people will not have confidence in the integrity and administration of the Electoral Commission.But I do want to take the opportunity to actually commend the Electoral Commission for the work that it does. Last year it had to deal with a by-election and also a referendum that tried to engage with the entire country. I know in the first referendum there was about a 46 percent turnout and in the second there was a 67 percent turnout. It used that process to try to enrol New Zealanders and I think that is the challenge yet again: how can we ensure that all eligible citizens of our country are enrolled and what we can do to encourage their participation given the general election on 23 September this year? Thank you."