Little AndrewPart 2 Provisions relating to referendumHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Very happy to talk on Part 2. I do notice we have some guests in the gallery so for the purposes of those looking on because we know the proceedings of Parliament are broadcast far and wide and every now and again we have a pretty packed gallery it helps to understand that this is what we call the committee of the whole House stage. This is the point at which a piece of legislation is given very close examination and scrutiny. Every clause is gone through bit by bit. It's a chance for the Opposition to raise questions about the issues in the particular part of the bill. Bills tend to be broken up into parts so we do it part by part. So hopefully you'll find this somewhat elucidating.The bill that we're talking about is called the Referendums Framework Bill. It is the piece of legislation that will govern the conduct of referendums in the 2020 general election. So we have some legislation that covers the holding of a referendum. We have our Electoral Act but not all of them apply or cover the conduct of the type of referendum that we want to have associated with the general election in 2020. So with that explanatory note hopefully out of the way hopefully that will make this a very pleasant experience for those in the gallery.I just want to summarise Part 2 in saying this is very much the operative and mechanical part of the bill. It starts with clause 8 which allows a declaration of a referendum by Order in Council as is very clear. The Hon Dr Nick Smith's continued injunction that nothing like this has ever happened in 160 years is demonstrably incorrect. Even clause 8 refers to the Referenda (Postal Voting) Act 2000 a piece of legislation that was promoted and encouraged by the National Government in the 1990s endorsed by senior Ministers of that Government passed in 2000. That is a piece of legislation that deals with referendum by postal vote and allows the referendum question to be promulgated through Order in Council. That's what's proposed at least in relation to the referendum question on the legalisation of cannabis.That question will be the subject of consultation with all parties in Parliament. It has already been the subject of considerable academic input and consideration of polling groups and what have you. So the idea when you ask a referendum question is it has to be neutral it has to be cast in language that everybody understands and that's what we are intending to do. The draft question posed in a recent speech by a Green Party member is not the question that will be posed in the ballot paper for next year. This part of the bill also covers off some of the mechanics of it. It says that the Electoral Act 1993 will apply; talks about who gets to officiate; basically replicates parts of the Electoral Act 1993 and that defines who can vote which oddly enough is that anybody who can vote at a general election can also vote on the referendums; and it lays out requirements for the voting paper. It talks about the counting of votes. It provides for the votes cast for the referendums not to be counted on election night because we don't want to slow down the results for members of Parliament and list members who by 7 o'clock on the Saturday night of election night are literally sitting on the edges of their seats wondering what's going to happen—their fate in the hands of the people. So we don't want to disrupt that moment of anxiety for members. These referendum questions—the votes will be counted for those subsequently and we will know within a couple of weeks ideally what the outcome of each of those election questions is. So that is provided for in these parts here.Then there are the provisions around petitions. If somebody disagrees with the result or the result is very close and perhaps considering a recount there are provisions in relation to that as well. None of this will be unusual. This House has passed legislation before about referendums. Whether it's the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act or whether it's the Referenda (Postal Voting) Act drafted by promoted encouraged and first read by a National Government this simply replicates that. So in any ordinary world there would be agreement on that but we don't live in ordinary times at the moment self-evidently so that won't happen. But these provisions are important. They are the meat and the bones of this particular bill. They provide for the practicalities of the conduct of the referendums in next year's general election and I look forward to the members' questions on it.