Walker Holly: Appointments — Representation CommissionText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWalker Holly: Appointments — Representation Commission[Sitting date: 03 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13160. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HOLLY WALKER (Green): As we have heard the task facing the Representation Commission which is to confirm the names and boundaries of the electorates is a very important one for our democracy because it will determine exactly which electorates are available for candidates to stand for in the 2014 general election and indeed for the next 5 years or until the next census is held. Perhaps more important in doing so it will determine whether the lines that are drawn around the electorates—which will always to a certain extent be arbitrary lines—are drawn around natural constituencies and communities of interest or whether they artificially bisect those natural groupings. It is very important that the Representation Commission is adequately informed and experienced to go about this task sensitively and carefully; otherwise the result could well be unfavourable.The task facing the Representation Commission is particularly important as we have heard because this will be the first time the boundaries have been reviewed since the devastating Canterbury earthquakes. It is likely that this will result in significant boundary change in Christchurch. As my colleague the Hon Lianne Dalziel has said communities have changed markedly in Christchurch since the quakes so it will be vital that the current distribution of communities of interest in Christchurch is understood and taken into account by the commission while it makes its decisions. And with this in mind it is somewhat concerning to the Green Party that none of the nominees are residents of Christchurch who could bring that most important local knowledge and perspective to the deliberations. We must therefore simply hope that the commission procures this important local perspective and advice from elsewhere.This particular commission also faces an important task because of the delay of the census following the quakes which has pushed the time line for determining the names and boundaries of the electorates out further than would ideally have been desirable. We know that the commission is expected to release the draft boundary changes in November of this year but they will not be confirmed until April of next year which is only 6 months or so before the likely date of the next election. So it does not leave a lot of time for parties to do their selection processes. It is very important that the commission works in a timely manner and communicates early with the public and with political parties about the likely changes so that these can be planned for.Having noted therefore the importance of the task that they face the Green Party expects that the candidates put forward in these motions Roger Sowry Pete Hodgson Daniel Te Kanawa andWhetūmāramaWeretā will take the task seriously and go about it diligently. They certainly appear to be experienced and well qualified for the task. However the Green Party will be opposing these motions as we have done in the past not because of any objection to these particular nominees but because of the outdatedmodel that sits behind their appointment. It is a very first-past-the-post model which requires appointees to represent the Government or the Opposition. It is a very two party - orientated model and it does not take into account the realities of our multiparty MMP system. We have eight parties and one independent member represented in the 50th Parliament all of whom are key stakeholders in any decision about this matter—about the number nature and boundaries of the electorates they will contest. It is an outmoded model for the political appointees to the commission to come only from the two so-called major parties. Parliament has changed and become more representative since the introduction of MMP and we in the Green Party consider that a body called the Representation Commission should at the very least in itself be representative. Thank you.