Swarbrick ChlöeELECTION ACCESS FUND BILLSecond ReadingCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): I move That the Election Access Fund Bill be now read a second time. Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. This is a great day for democracy for evening the playing field. When this bill passes its final hurdle in months to come it will ensure that no future political candidate with disability will have to internalise the costs of barriers that society places in front of them through design or systemic neglect. I want to thank the Governance and Administration Committee that being a rather extensive list. The committee throughout was former chair Brett Hudson chair Dr Jian Yang Ginny Andersen Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi the Hon Jacqui Dean Paul Eagle the Hon Peeni Henare and former members of course Raymond Huo Jamie Strange and Lawrence Yule. I want to thank all of them for the mammoth effort in working with me to knock this bill into the most robust and workable law possible. And the party spokespeople on disability and on electoral law reform on all sides who have collaborated to bring this forward with its unanimous support in the House today—over the last year of that journey it's included but not been limited to the Hon Carmel Sepuloni the Hon Ruth Dyson the Hon Poto Williams the Hon Tracey Martin the Hon Dr Nick Smith the Hon Nicky Wagner Dr Shane Reti and David Seymour.Thank you to the Office of the Clerk who went above and beyond to help facilitate an inclusive and accessible process in very practical terms. That meant the first entirely truly accessible select committee process that this Parliament has ever seen. It's a bit mind-blowing that it took that long but nonetheless with the help of disability advocates and services that meant New Zealand Sign Language explainers easy-read documents translation services and with the permission of the Governance and Administration Committee extended times for submitters with certain barriers to communication. Also I want to thank the flexibility of the Business Committee to accommodate this bill as the first members' order of the day for timing certainty and for New Zealand Sign Language interpreters. This Election Access Fund Bill began in the mind of Mojo Mathers its original author. Mojo came into Parliament as an advocate for animal welfare and for water quality as a Green MP. But she also happened to be the first member of Parliament with profound deafness. Her representation of those characteristics in this place often meant that when people spoke about her they precluded her political contributions with those characteristics. Mojo was an incredible politician and she also had profound deafness. When politicians talk about any demographic grouping we tend to generalise whether that's intentionally or unintentionally. For example when we're talking about young people middle-aged people parents those without children the rainbow community whomever—often we frame most people in relation to the dominant power group. We other" them consciously or not. But no demographic is homogenous. It would be a mistake to call all millennials liberal lefties as much as it would be a mistake to call all baby boomers conservatives. Each of us have unique life experiences that help shape us much more than what can seem to some as flippant or arbitrary external categorisation features. When we're talking about removing barriers so that the Deaf and disabled community can engage equitably in our democracy we are talking about removing barriers that exist for any citizen who may find themselves disabled by a system that is not designed with their participation in mind. This legislation is an intentional step forward to levelling the playing field. It establishes the Election Access Fund administered by the neutral independent Electoral Commission. The fund could be used by any disabled candidate to cover the disability-related costs of standing in a general election. These candidates would access that fund by way of an application and that would apply throughout their journey as a candidate from the moment that they showcase that intention to selection meetings and throughout the campaign trail. Some have suggested that the eligibility for the fund should only apply during that three-month regulated period closest to the election but I would state that that entirely misses the point actually because the point of this fund is to remove barriers that other candidates simply do not face. It doesn't give anybody an advantage; it simply levels the playing field.I want to thank the Governance and Administration Committee again for their work through these minutiae of the bill and the fund's operation. They also made recommendations that were accepted unanimously across all parties that will see the fund available for by-elections. Whilst there was much discussion and I inferred a general preference to see the fund extended to local body elections it was unfortunately too much to contemplate within the narrow scope of a member's bill because it would involve changes to the current administration of local government elections which are governed by different legislation than our general elections and by-elections.There was also a move to deepen albeit narrow the focus solely to the path of candidates removing the ability unfortunately of NGOs and political parties to apply for resources from the Election Access Fund. But that was an important part of building that unanimity and making sure here that there is an ease of application of facilitation and for the review of efficacy of the fund. I hope that the eventual success of this fund in its operation will illustrate the importance of a completely barrier-free election a stream of work which I anticipate there is an appetite for from across this Chamber. I definitely felt and heard comments of that sort from the select committee process.Advice from the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Justice through the select committee process made clear the huge workload to facilitate this upcoming general election and the associated referendums or referenda—whatever your preferred wording is. To ensure that the Election Access Fund Bill is successful it will need at least a year and a half to establish. The ticking clock as imposed by the members' day processes means that we won't unfortunately be able to get this done in time for the 2020 general election and I want to apologise to those members of the disability community who will be gutted by that. We are too. But we have required through the committee amendment to the bill that it will come into force on 1 July 2021 after the upcoming election and well in time to produce a predictable certain and robust Election Access Fund in time for the 2023 election.It's important to make clear that increasing accessibility to our democracy is not just the basic human decent thing to do nor just a part of the social contract; it's also part of our international obligations. In 2008 New Zealand joined dozens of other countries around the world in ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 29 of the convention guarantees signatory countries will and I quote "ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others directly or through freely chosen representatives including the right and opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected" and I quote "promote actively an environment in which persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in the conduct of public affairs without discrimination and on an equal basis with others and encourage their participation in public affairs".I want to thank all of my colleagues across the House who are supporting this unanimously today. I think we've seen the best of this Parliament in the process through this Governance and Administration Committee across both the Government benches and the Opposition. I want to desperately thank the clerks and the Speaker's office for their incredible work in bringing together this truly accessible process which has served as a prototype I hope for how we can be better at producing a more inclusive democracy and those processes moving forward. I want to thank the accessibility advocates and members of the disability community and I want to thank Mojo Mathers for the work that brought this to the House and for the support that it has today.I proudly on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand commend this Election Access Fund Bill to the House."