Appointments — Electoral Commission

on behalf of the Associate Minister of Justice: I move, That, pursuant to section 4D of the Electoral Act 1993 and section 32 of the Crown Entities Act 2004, this House recommend Her Excellency the Governor-General appoint Hon Sir John Hugh Williams QC as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission for a term of 18 months commencing on the date of the warrant.

The Electoral Commission is responsible for the administration of parliamentary elections and referenda—[Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am having extreme difficulty—[Interruption] Order! This is an important motion and at this stage I am having extreme difficulty hearing what the Minister is saying. For those members who wish to leave the House, would they do so without interrupting the proceedings. I apologise to the Minister.

The Electoral Commission is responsible for the administration of parliamentary elections and referenda; the allocation of time and money for the broadcast of election programmes; conduct of the Māori electoral option; servicing the work of the Representation Commission; the provision of advice, reports, and public education on electoral matters; and the election enrolment services for both parliamentary and local body elections.

The Electoral Commission has a board of three members, comprising a part-time chairperson, a part-time deputy chairperson, and a full-time Chief Electoral Officer, who is the chief executive. Appointments to the Electoral Commission are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the House of Representatives. The position of chairperson of the Electoral Commission is under review as the term of the incumbent, Sir Hugh Williams, expired on 12 March 2017. The Electoral Act 1993 is administered under the justice portfolio and the Minister of Justice, the Hon Amy Adams, is responsible for the process of appointments to the commission. She has delegated this appointment to the Hon Mark Mitchell as the Associate Minister of Justice.

The position of chairperson of the commission is a leadership and governance role. It requires a person with good strategic planning skills, expertise in financial management and risk management, and unquestionable personal integrity and independence. The functions of the chairperson are not defined in statute but in practice. The chairperson’s responsibilities include chairing meetings of the commission and determining the agenda, ensuring that the commission’s governance practices are in line with good practice and are well documented, ensuring that the commission works harmoniously and effectively in carrying out its functions, consulting with Ministers, acting as the spokesperson for the commission where appropriate, undertaking public speaking engagements where appropriate, developing and maintaining good collegial relationships between commissioners, and generally ensuring that the commission meets its statutory responsibilities and lawful Government expectations under the statement of intent, memorandum of understanding, and other expectations placed on independent Crown entities.

Sir Hugh was appointed President of the former Electoral Commission in 2009. At that time the governing legislation required the position to be appointed from a list of three persons nominated for the purpose by the Chief Justice. Even though there is now no statutory requirement for the chairperson to be a judge or former judge, the constitutionally significant nature of the Electoral Commission’s role means that having a chair that can provide strong and independent legal leadership is highly desirable. The practice has been to appoint a retired senior member of the judiciary. Following the recent appointments of a new deputy chair and Chief Electoral Officer, it is highly desirable to retain a level of institutional knowledge leading into the general election. I am confident that Sir Hugh Williams can continue to provide the commission with sound leadership. His expertise and experience will be invaluable.

Sir Hugh was appointed as a judge of the High Court in 1995 and retired from the bench in 2009. He previously served as a Master of the High Court for 6 years and was for as many years the chancellor of Massey University. He has a longstanding involvement in the administration of justice and significant governance experience as a highly engaged university chancellor. Sir Hugh was appointed President of the Electoral Commission in 2009 and then as chair of the present commission in 2011. He was appointed for a second 3-year term in March 2014 and has continued to perform ably in this role.

The Crown Entities Act 2004 provides that appointments to the independent Crown entities may be for a period of up to 5 years. It is proposed that Sir Hugh’s reappointment be for a term of 18 months. This will ensure that Sir Hugh can oversee the reporting processes that will follow the 2017 general election and that the chairperson position is reviewed with 18 months’ lead-in time to the 2020 general election.

The proposed appointment of Sir Hugh was consulted on with all cross-party leaders following the approval of his appointment from the Cabinet appointments and honours committee on 16 February. With great pleasure I commend to the House the reappointment of Sir Hugh Williams for this important role. He is an extremely capable man, as his service in the role to date has shown. I am confident that his expertise and experience will serve the Electoral Commission and the country well.

I am happy to speak in favour of the motion before the House making appointments to the Electoral Commission. I do want to acknowledge the important role the Electoral Commission has in ensuring that New Zealand has free and fair elections, where the rules are fair and where they are adhered to by all parties and implemented in a manner that is scrupulously fair.

I do, however, want to express some concern at this point that one of the jobs that the Electoral Commission has is ensuring that the electoral rolls in New Zealand are up to date. I fear that we are going to find at this year’s general election that there are tens of thousands of New Zealanders who are disenfranchised from the process because when they go to cast their votes in the polling booth, they will find that their votes are discounted because they are not on the appropriate electoral roll. That is of huge concern to anybody who cares about democracy.

Those who go to vote should have their votes counted, and the Electoral Commission has a vital role in ensuring that the rolls that provide for people to have their right to vote protected are up to date. They are not up to date. It is abundantly clear from the work that we have been doing out and about in the community that there are thousands of people out there—

💬 Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is about the appointment.

—who are not on the roll and who need to have their details up to date. Therefore, one of the jobs of those who are appointed to the Electoral Commission—

💬 Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Not close enough.

—is to ensure that those processes are implemented and that that work does take place and does happen.

The appointments have been consulted on widely across the Parliament. I was not one of those involved in the process, but I have been advised by those on the Labour side of the House who were involved in the process that they have full confidence that the process has been fair and that the appointments being made are appropriate. Therefore, the Labour Party will be supporting the motion.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support and congratulate Sir Hugh Williams on his reappointment as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission plays a crucial role in our society. Sometimes I think we overlook the importance of the role until we look at societies where elections are corrupt and manipulated, and we should be grateful that we have a commission that operates to a high standard.

We applaud the chair’s role in steering the Electoral Commission over recent years in improving the processes around our elections. In particular, we appreciate the provision of information in many other languages—other than English—including New Zealand Sign Language. We applaud the support for the Māori roll. We support the introduction of the provision to enrol and vote on the same day. We applaud the promotion of enrolment, while also echoing my colleague Chris Hipkins’ concern that the data on enrolment needs to be up to date. He was expressing some concern about the current state of the enrolment data. We applaud also the overseas enrolment being easier and better promoted. Finally, we support the opportunity for voters who have disabilities to be able to vote in our elections.

We urge Sir Hugh Williams to carry on with these processes. In particular, we appreciate the performance objective of pushing enrolment over 93 percent—that, we believe, is a minimum performance measure that the Electoral Commission and his role should be fulfilling—and also the performance measure of increasing voting participation to over 75 percent.

So, in all, we consider Sir Hugh Williams has strong credentials for professional leadership and governance for his role to continue as chair. We note that he is a former judge of the High Court and has in the past been a Palmerston North city councillor and a chancellor of Massey University, and has been chair since 2011. We also would like to extend thanks to the 18,000 staff in 2,300 voting places, supporting 3 million voters.

Just a reminder to anyone who may be watching on Parliament TV: the election will take place on 23 September. Voting starts on 11 September, so please make sure—

💬 Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: We do not need an advertorial.

—that you enrol and vote. With that, the Green Party supports the motion to reappoint Sir Hugh Williams as chair of the Electoral Commission.

I want to begin by first acknowledging the good work of the Electoral Commission over many years past and, also, the very able leadership of the current chairman, Sir John Hugh Williams. I also want to particularly applaud the work of the commission in its attempts to increase enrolment and also to increase turnout. New Zealand First will support its thrust to do even more in that area. It is unfortunate that the current Government has not agreed to do more in the ways that the commission itself has advocated, or in the ways that other parties have advocated. However, the commission itself has done a very good job, and I think it deserves the congratulations of the House on doing so, under the able leadership, as I have said, of the current chairman.

It is essential that the commission has the confidence of the public of New Zealand and of this Parliament to conduct its business and to conduct it fairly, to be seen to be conducting it fairly, and, in particular, to conduct it with complete political neutrality, because there are many functions that the commission has that rely heavily on that principle. I think the commission has done a very good job in achieving that under its current leadership.

Continuity is another important issue when we consider the reappointment of Sir Hugh, because continuity is especially desirable in an election year, when the commission is at its busiest and when the retention of institutional knowledge is so vital to make sure that it continues to operate as a commission effectively and fairly in the ways that I have described. So for all of those reasons, New Zealand First is very happy indeed to support the reappointment of Sir Hugh for a further period of 18 months.

Motion agreed to.