Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Madam Chair. I thank the member who's just resumed his seat Tim Macindoe a member for whom I have immense respect and even agree with sometimes. I am somewhat intrigued by his boast about having been the most loyal member of Parliament for the National Party who would never think of crossing the floor as against the assertions by his colleagues in the last 16 hours of debate on this bill that every member must reserve the right to cross the floor on a whim to maintain their conscience and their fealty to their constituency.But putting those inconsistencies aside there is another aspect in which I agree with the Hon Tim Macindoe and that is my respect for Graeme Edgeler as a commentator on constitutional and electoral matters. He is an authority on those matters and I have seen his commentary on this bill and his suggestions for improvement but I disagree with him and indeed on the need for these three Supplementary Order Papers because the things that they would provide for in an amended Electoral Act are already provided for. So for example section 71B of the existing Electoral Act requires registered parties to lodge their rules with the Electoral Commission and then every time a registered party changes those rules there is a further requirement that those changed rules are provided to the Electoral Commission within one month of those rules changing.But there is a balance to strike and we see this in for example the Incorporated Societies Act. When we have legislation governing the private affairs or the affairs of private organisations there are some minimum requirements that we would expect and that this House would expect to be required to have the protection of statutory rights and privileges. But there is a point at which you can go too far and the fundamental principle of freedom of association as it applies in this case to political parties is political parties must be free to make their rules how they see fit and to govern themselves how they see fit. It would be wrong for us to start legislating whether for political parties or any other grouping of people incorporated or unincorporated on how they should associate amongst themselves. That is the freedom of association principle.I know members opposite are very very keen on the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act at the moment and the principles and the freedoms that are contained and protected in that Act in that piece of legislation but they apply here as well. So I think it is absolutely right that in the Electoral Act as it currently stands section 71B requires political parties to lodge their rules with the Electoral Commission and to have them available for public inspection. The statute requires them to be available for inspection between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. I don't know what that means in the internet world whether there's some sort of device that cuts them off at 5 o'clock each weekday and then you can't see them on the weekend. I don't think that's how the Electoral Commission works and I think that they take a large and liberal interpretation so inspection of political party rules is available pretty much 24/7 which is fantastic and if those rules change those changes are also available.Do we legislate for specific aspects for political parties? There is already requirement in section 71 that their rules for selection of candidates be democratic. There is already provision in section 55 for those private actions that will disqualify a member from continuing in Parliament. Those things are all there. This will add to that through the changes represented in new sections 55A to 55D. That's all there. Nothing further is required. There are basic requirements of transparency and electoral integrity contained within the current Electoral Act and they are supplemented by what is in this bill. These three Supplementary Order Papers—69 70 and 71—do not add anything to what is currently in the Electoral Act.