Tisch Lindsay: Electoral (Reduction in Number of  Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tisch Lindsay: Electoral (Reduction in Number of  Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1843] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 It is a privilege to be able to speak on a very important piece of legislation under the Electoral Act that could affect the way we operate in the future and I congratulate Barbara Stewart on bringing this bill forward. It is not the first time we have debated the number of MPs the composition of the House and the electoral system. Jenny Shipley had a similar bill and it was carried through and picked up by Simon Power. 
But it is also interesting to note that although New Zealand First is promoting this bill it did not take the opportunity to make submissions when the review of MMP took place in 2001. I think it is significant that New Zealand First which is now championing the cause of having fewer MPs had the opportunity then to make submissions. I will read from the paragraph headed “Invitation to join the Committee” in the report of the MMP Review Committee on the inquiry into the review of MMP: “All the political parties represented in the House were invited to participate in the review of MMP by nominating a member to join the committee. The ACT Alliance Green Labour National and United parties all did so. The New Zealand First party declined to participate. In addition to this all the parties in the House were invited to make a submission to the committee on the review; all did so with the exception of the New Zealand First party.” 
In the context of what transpired in the past and what we are seeing tonight I am pleased that Barbara has moved forward. I do not know whether this is a change for the New Zealand First Party but in our view it is a move in the right direction. Way back in 1999 a citizens initiated referendum was held which was significant because 1.7 million people—81.5 percent of those who voted—voted for a reduction in the number of members of Parliament. That was a huge indication of public support for a change to the number of MPs from 120 down to 99. Yet here we have a Government that tonight is saying it will not support this bill. 
Hon Member 
: It’s a shame. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: It is a shame. It is an absolute disgrace that a party is not taking note of what has been advocated and voted on in a referendum whose result was overwhelming. In 1999 81.5 percent—1.7 million New Zealanders in total—of the New Zealanders who voted in the referendum said they wanted the number of MPs reduced from 120 to 99. What do we hear tonight? We hear that no the Government will not participate. It will vote against this bill. 
Let me remind members of what Jim Anderton said who I suppose will vote with the Government tonight. On 3 August 1993 Jim Anderton spoke in the debate on the Electoral Reform Bill. I will quote from  
Hansard 
 Volume 537 at page 17130: “I also give notice that on behalf of the Alliance I will be moving an amendment to reduce the number of seats in the referendum about MMP to 100. That is 60 constituent seats 4 Maori seats and 36 list seats—enough seats to ensure proportionality …”. Here is a member of the Government propping up this minority Labour Government. I will be interested to see whether Mr Anderton’s party of one will actually subscribe to the fact that in 1993 he said that there should be a reduction in the number of MPs. 
This Government with the Greens supporting it is saying no to public feeling. It will stand against this bill going to a select committee. I give notice to the Labour Government that this sort of insult to what New Zealanders want—which is the accountability flexibility and transparency that a reduction in the number of MPs would give if the bill were allowed to go to a select committee—will be the Government’s downfall. Do members know why MMP was introduced and why we had 120 members? The reason was that there would be a large pool of people to fill ministerial positions. Well what have we seen in the last couple of days? We have seen the David Benson-Pope saga. Has having 120 MPs added to Parliament’s value tradition or credibility? The answer is no. In the last couple of days we have seen Chris Carter with a problem relating to the Whangamata marina. That is the sort of thing that happens. We have too many MPs. We need to reduce that number and support New Zealand First in this bill.