SpeechANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I was looking forward to another three minutes from Mr David Seymour particularly because he does acknowledge the very good work of the member of Parliament for the Rangitata electorate. So thank you to the good member for Epsom as well.I rise to speak tonight on the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill (No 2) and it feels a little bit like Groundhog Day because of course we were here in exactly this position last week passing legislation—again under urgency—to give some additional prisoners the right to vote. The reason we're here again tonight is because of a mistake a muck-up a stuff-up on the Government's part between the three governing parties and we actually warned them at the time. It shows the perils of passing legislation under urgency—Chlöe Swarbrick: You didn't Andrew come on. Don't be disingenuous.ANDREW FALLOON: There were plenty of warnings Ms Swarbrick. In fact Nick Smith pointed out on several occasions tried to be helpful tried to—indeed he sought leave to send it back to select committee to fix that mistake Ms Chlöe Swarbrick and of course it was opposed by the Government parties. But this bill shows the perils of passing legislation under urgency and of course urgency has its place; we all accept that. There was COVID legislation passed some months ago in response to COVID-19 and of course that's appropriate—we do use urgency from time to time. But it does come with risk and this bill highlights some of those risks. Because you had Andrew Little putting forward the bill which then went to the committee of the whole House and various amendments were voted on some by Golriz Ghahraman and one of those amendments was passed by the committee; it was passed by Parliament.And yet now we're here in this House seeking to change that amendment to reverse those amendments. And we're not alone in doing so because—I should say Andrew Little rather railed against the use of urgency on occasion; in fact particularly in relation to electoral law. He said that electoral law should not be subject to urgency; we should not be using urgency to pass electoral law changes. And of course the Greens joined him in that. The Greens—I'm old enough to remember—in Opposition used to rail against the use of urgency on many many occasions and yet here we are the three Government parties led by Andrew Little the Minister of Justice for this Parliament who says that electoral law should be passed under urgency and the Greens are joining him in doing so.We warned them throughout. I said that earlier Ms Swarbrick. She's quite wrong. They were warned throughout they were warned during the committee of the whole House stage they were warned during the third reading and yet unfortunately the Minister pressed on. The Minister pressed on with that process despite those glaring inconsistencies being pointed out to them and as my colleague Tim van de Molen said Nick Smith offered to fix it. He moved a motion in this Parliament—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Excuse me Mr Falloon; I'm sorry to interrupt you but you've had three minutes. Would you mind speaking to the bill? Thank you. Starting now.ANDREW FALLOON: Absolutely Madam Speaker absolutely. And so the reason we have this bill the reason we're voting on this bill—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): No not the reason why we're here but what's in the bill.ANDREW FALLOON: What's in this bill is reversing a change that was passed in this Parliament last week which could have been fixed actually if the original bill the No. 1 bill as we've referred to it tonight had been referred back to select committee as Nick Smith offered to do yet the Minister pressed on despite that.Now what this bill does is it fixes the inconsistencies that were raised in Parliament last week and the amendment that was put forward by Golriz Ghahraman—there were two parts to it. The first part was to essentially give all prisoners the right to vote—that wasn't passed by the House—but then the second part that was passed by this Parliament which we're now reversing with this bill sought to require prison managers to advise and assist essentially prisoners to enrol to vote and this bill gets rid of that. This bill changes that. And yet the Greens who moved that motion originally are now voting against the very amendment that they moved.Across the House throughout this debate we've had Andrew Little and other Labour MPs standing up and what has been their response to that? Their response has been to blame National—to blame National for that change that was made in this House last week. Well I'll just remind members opposite that actually National doesn't have a majority in this Parliament. So how on earth could it be that this devious National Party this National Opposition could pass legislation in this Parliament against the wishes of the Government? It's because it absolutely can't happen. We don't have majority in this Parliament. It was the Greens who put forward the amendment it was the Greens who voted for the amendments it was the Greens who voted for this change to be made that we are now voting against. It goes to show what a shambles we have in this Government when you've got three parties all expressing a very different view.I just want to run through some of those comments that have been raised in the debate—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Are you referring to the bill now Mr Falloon?ANDREW FALLOON: I'm referring to the points that have been raised—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Are you referring to the bill now?ANDREW FALLOON: Absolutely Madam Speaker and in doing so—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): I'll be listening carefully. That's the second opportunity I've given you to refer to the bill; so I'll be listening really carefully.ANDREW FALLOON: Right OK thank you Madam Speaker. So what this bill does as I've said is it changes the amendment that was made in the No. 1 bill last week. It changes the amendment that was made which would have required prison managers to advise and assist prisoners—all prisoners—of the right to vote. And that actually comes from quite a consistent position from the Green Party that they've put forward which I have some sympathy for. It says that rather than just some prisoners having the right to vote all prisoners should have the right to vote. I as I say have some sympathy for that position. And in his contribution to this debate in this House this afternoon the Minister Andrew Little said that one of the reasons for the change one of the reasons for this piece of legislation is that there's a fundamental principle that prisoners should have the right to vote on the Government when they're released. And I can understand that position.The problem with this bill is that this bill doesn't actually do that. This bill doesn't give prisoners the right to vote on who will be in Government when they're released. Because if that was the consistent position that the Government was going to hold they'd extend it to all people all prisoners who are within three years of release—and this bill doesn't do that. All this bill and the previous bill does is give the right to vote to prisoners who have been sentenced to three years or less in prison. It doesn't do what the Minister has claimed it does which is giving all the prisoners the right to vote in their last three years in prison. And that was—I'll again quote him; he said it was a fundamental principle that prisoners should have the right to vote on the Government that will govern them when they are released. That wasn't his only contribution; he also said that electoral law lies at the heart of our democracy and again I agree with that point. Of course it does and yet here we are under urgency passing this legislation.I want to raise a separate point to that matter which is that Andrew Little earlier in the debate described that there was I think several thousand submissions on the original piece of legislation and so later on in this debate when we come to the committee of the whole House stage I'll be asking him how many submissions does he think—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Maybe ask him then.ANDREW FALLOON: I'm happy to; I'm just giving him fair warning. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Just speak to the bill.ANDREW FALLOON: I'm giving him fair warning: how many submissions does he think there'll be on this bill? And of course there will be none. There will be no submissions on this bill because it's being rushed through all stages of Parliament under urgency tonight. There'll be no submissions there will be no opportunity for people to submit on the bill and unfortunately that's only going to cause more mistakes. As we warned on this side of the House throughout this debate and through the debate last week the perils of passing legislation under urgency is that mistakes can be made. The committee stage and the select committee is where those mistakes can be identified. Unfortunately in this case there won't be a select committee; there won't be an opportunity for members of the public to come forward put forward their views identify mistakes and hopefully pass a better bill. That won't be the process here and so I unfortunately suspect that there could be additional problems with this bill. There'll be no opportunity to fix those glaring mistakes.Before I end I do just want to raise one final point from the Minister's contribution. And in his contribution he made thinly veiled attacks on a member of this House. He referred to craziness several times. He questioned the sanity of members. I find that disgraceful because at a time—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Mr Falloon if it was so disgraceful you should have raised it at the time. Could you use your remaining 35 seconds to address the bill please?ANDREW FALLOON: Absolutely Madam Speaker. I think it is disgraceful I also think it's disgraceful that—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Sorry Mr Falloon you will resume your seat.