Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): I'm quite pleased to be the final speaker in the third reading of the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill. I'm pleased because I am a Labour Party list member of Parliament. I'm a Labour Party list member of Parliament and I thought I'd just have a quick little look over what the number of votes were that I actually accrued in the last election. I gave it my all. I tried my best but unfortunately I fell short in the East Coast electorate. There were over 14000 people that voted for the Labour Party on the East Coast—14000 people.Now I'd say—and you know as much as I wish it wasn't the case—I think that of those 14000 people that voted for the Labour Party probably about 13999 of them didn't really know who Kiri Allan was and that was an ancillary matter. What was important to them was the values of our party and what's important to people is that when you cast your vote and you cast it for a party that you are getting what you bargained for.I want to just reflect for a moment on the purpose of the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill—in particular new section 55AAB in clause 5 which is the purpose of the amendments. It is to enhance the public confidence in the integrity of the electoral system. Now most people aren't going to be sitting in their homes debating the nuances of how their parliamentary electoral system operates but what we do know is that every three years the good folk of New Zealand come down to cast their votes: one for their party and one for the person that they hope they will have represent them in this here House. I don't think that it crosses the minds of most people that actually for me as a list member of Parliament at any old whim I could for example go and join my colleague over there David Seymour whose party stands in absolute contrast to my own party's values. So what this bill does effectively is it tidies up an anomaly in our law.I must pay homage to the Hon Andrew Little who has had to steward this bill and has sat in this House for about 21 hours listening to the Opposition filibuster left right and centre. I can only imagine which is why actually—we've heard all the debates and we've heard the sorrow from the Opposition about how our constitutional arrangements are in flux and our electoral system is going down the drain but the reality is that most ordinary New Zealanders want what they bargained for. They want to know that when you cast your vote in a wee box once every three years you get what you said you were going to get. So that there is about enhancing the public confidence of our electoral integrity system.Now I do want to just briefly touch on—because I do think it is important and the member opposite Chris Bishop who spoke just prior did make reference to it—the range of constitutional experts that did take the time to submit and I do want to thank them for their submissions. There were many former colleagues and friends. I want to reflect though on probably two things briefly. First was the Attorney-General's New Zealand Bill of Rights Act report. They considered section 14 and section 17—that's freedom of expression and freedom of association. Applying the Hansen test on every single one of those limbs he determined as did the Solicitor-General in 2005 when he had to consider a very similar piece of legislation before this House—Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's wrong.KIRITAPU ALLAN: No that absolutely correct—Sir Terence Arnold in 2005. They both fell in the same place which is that yeah it is a fine balance. It's a fine balance striking the balance between trying to achieve the objectives of an electoral system that has integrity—counterbalance those with those rights. But both pieces of advice—both then over 10 years ago and now—erred on the side that under a finely balanced test the objectives of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act were met. After we listened for like I said 21 hours of debate in committee stage or just over—I think it was 21 hours and 20 minutes to be exact.Chris Bishop: 22 and you didn't take a single call.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Oh I thought it was 21 hours and 20 minutes. But anyway I might be 40 minutes shy. We have heard the ins and outs of where the Opposition stand. Look they gave it their best effort but the reality is that most New Zealanders want an electoral system that they can trust. As a list member on the Government's side I can only applaud Minister Little and those that have championed this bill. So I commend this bill to the House.