Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Madam Chair and I thank the members who have spoken so far on this part of the bill. I will seek to attempt to answer their questions. I'll start with the contribution by the Hon Dr Nick Smith whose central question was: why haven't other changes been made? And look I could say Well that's a bit rich because in nine years nothing changed." but the reason is because this is a bill that seeks to deal with the obvious and now increasingly—the increasing clear risk of foreign interference and undue foreign influence in our political system. So I'm pleased to hear that that member supports the extension of the requirement to put promoter statements on all forms of advertising including those on social media and online advertising but this has not been a time for a thoroughgoing comprehensive review of the Electoral Act. That does need to happen and I'm confident that that will happen but that is not the objective of this piece of legislation. It is very discrete it is very confined and that's why it is the way that it is. To Chris Penk's usual always very interesting contributions—I disagree with him that there is any such thing as a dumb question; there are no dumb questions. He knows that and his contributions keep Ministers in the chair on their toes which is the role of the committee of the whole House stage mostly. So to deal with the definition of "party secretary"—really I understand the question to be: is the role divisible? If you have a look at the drafting of that clause 16 which refers to other parts of the Electoral Act which make references to the party secretary those provisions referred to in that clause 16 and the new section 3EA—so the current sections 63(2)(c)(iii) or 63(2)(c)(iv)—that refers to the person named on the application to register the party; that is the party secretary. In section 67(3)(c) it is the person notified to the Electoral Commission as appointed to the position of secretary. Then in section 67AA(2) that provides that if there is a vacancy in the position of party secretary another person must be appointed. So the scheme of the Act already says there must be this person designated as party secretary. It is that person—and all that that provision adds is that the person must live in New Zealand. Which brings us neatly to the next question that the member posed which was: what does live in New Zealand mean? Well there is not a residential requirement nor even a citizenship requirement. It simply means that the person must be in New Zealand and living—to live in New Zealand clearly there has to be some sort of authority to do so. I'm attempting to say the person has to be in New Zealand and not dead. I mean that would be an accurate interpretation and definition of it and that would be a useful start but actually I think it is very clear the person must be located in New Zealand discharging the responsibilities of this person designated for statutory purposes as the party secretary. The next question that that member asked was in relation to clause 17 and "permit to be published". I simply say to the member: that is just the language already used in the Electoral Act and we're not seeking because of the circumstances in which this legislation is in the House to make any other changes or craft up any other kind of drafting that will have an impact on the rest of the Electoral Act. We are drafting this bill in a way that is consistent with the rest of the Act and that explains that one. Penultimately the member asked about the true name. Now that is simply you know ensuring that aliases are not used. You could not use "Daddy Thicc Snacc" for example in the promoter statement. It would have to be the name of the person if you like as recognised in the register of births deaths and marriages of whatever country the person may have originated from including New Zealand. But it must be the recognised name for official purposes. Finally the member asks whether the reference to—I think in clause 17 proposed new section 221A(1)(b)—the person's place of residence or business should be changed to be an address where the person might be reasonably expected to be found. Again we don't have that form of words in any other place where the person is expected to provide an address and that I think answers all the questions posed so far.Part 2 agreed to."