Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill

I move, That the Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider this bill.

Tēnā tātou i te Whare. Tēnā tātou e hui tahi nei. Tuatahi, Megan, kei te tangi atu ki te āhuatanga i te rirotanga o tō māmā, o tō kōkā, nō reira, tika tonu kia mihi rā atu ki a koe i te wehetanga o tō māmā i tēnei pō.

[Greetings to everyone in the House. Thank you for gathering together. Firstly, to Megan, I grieve for the passing of your mother, and so, it is appropriate to acknowledge you in that loss tonight.]

It’s a pleasure to rise and introduce my first member’s bill as an MP in Te Paati Māori, the Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill—well, you can see it’s quite a popular bill, because just about every party—Labour, Greens, and ourselves—have all seen this is an issue for us all.

Our electoral law—and I’ve said it in the past, and this is not going to be a shocking fright for everybody—is the most racist law in this country. It was designed purposefully to prevent Māori from participating fully in the democratic process. If we look back to 1867, when the four Māori electorates were established, they were set up as only four seats. This was designed to severely limit the representation we had in this place; given, at the time, we would have held a great number of seats—based on the population, at least 48 to 50 percent. Even then, it was only Māori men over the age of 21 who could vote. It wasn’t until 1893 that Māori women were able to vote. Racism dominated the system from then until now.

Until 1975, the so-called half-caste Māori with one Māori and one European parent were allowed to choose which seat they wished to vote on; blood quantuming, which was a tool used before 1975 to control Māori and first-nations people all over the world. The New Zealand Government did this through a very cruel and ghastly tool, like I said: blood quantuming. The racist tool was used to question one’s whakapapa. This is where the label “Māori elitism” was born. This is a tool that amplifies the colonisers’ favourite tool, which is to divide and conquer. The title “Māori elitism” as a divide and conquer tool is still being used by MPs and parties today.

As members of Parliament, we have responsibility to ensure that Aotearoa has free and fair elections and does not lock anyone out, or a group, from participating. We have an obligation to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi and repeal any racist and discriminatory provisions on our law books. Today, with this bill, I’m giving each and every one of you, the opportunity—every one of “us”; sorry, Mr Speaker—to do just that: electoral participation and a basic right for Māori to exercise in Aotearoa, guaranteed in article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and within international law. There should be no barriers put up for tangata whenua to participate in the electoral process.

However, our current electoral system does just that: it puts up barriers for our people to freely engage in politics and elections. Currently, there are only two opportunities for Māori to choose electoral rolls, either at the time of initial enrolment or during the Māori electoral option. The electoral option period only takes place over a four-month period every five to six years; the last one was in 2018, it’s an eight-year lockout, e hika mā. The last electoral option was 2018. People that wanted to change before the 2020 election couldn’t, because the next electoral option is 2024, which means they will miss the 2023 election. So the election of their choice, on the roll of their choice, won’t happen until 2026. What this does, in effect, is lock out the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa from fully participating in our democracy for up to an eight-year period.

Thousands of Māori request to change electoral rolls every year. This has likely led to thousands of Māori disengaged from the electoral process altogether. This is a disgrace and highlights what tangata whenua have to deal with when engaging in this democratic system.

The bill before the House today would once and for all make the simple changes that are needed for Māori to freely participate in the decision making that affects them at every level. It would amend the Electoral Act 1993 to enable Māori voters to switch between the Māori and non-Māori electoral rolls at any time. We acknowledge that the Government followed our lead and introduced a bill to enable Māori to switch rolls more freely; this bill is before the select committee before it enters into the second reading, and which we support. However, I’m calling on this House today to also support my bill through to select committee to enable the debate, because there are other things in my bill that allow us to really home in on the discrepancies and also the discrimination that Māori face within our electoral law.

We also think there should be legislative requirements that if somebody stipulates that they are Māori, when enrolling, but doesn’t choose an electoral roll, that they are placed on the Māori roll. Our research shows that many of our people are being put on the non-Māori roll, the general roll, in this manner, if they sign a paper-based form.

My bill will also change the name of the general electoral district to the non-Māori electoral district—and the voting, all electorates take place during a general election: so you’ve got the general roll and the general election. That must change also. We’re open to the debate as the best way to at least—confusing the name might be, but however we are clear that our people are sick and tired of being marginalised. We are the first-nations people of this land; the status quo cannot continue.

I lay down a wero to all these parties today to support this particular bill. It will allow Māori to freely move in the electoral process of this country and participate in our democracy in a lot fairer and a more inclusive manner in regards to voting not just at local level but at central level. It allows us to participate without being locked out.

Much of the criticism for this proposed law change reveals a shocking level of hypocrisy and double standards. Like I said yesterday, I see that there is an issue around Māori being able to change a few months or a few weeks before a by-election. The thing is that that is already happening with house owners and homeowners all over the country. We know that. Everybody else knows that. If you have an address in another town, you can enrol in that town and vote in that town, and you can do that at any time. There’s no such thing as a month or a week or a few weeks out where you can’t do that; people are doing it all the time. All this is about is about enabling Māori to choose which roll they vote on; no one will get an extra vote.

Any party who fails to support these changes will have made it obvious that they are actively hostile to the fundamental rights and interests of tangata whenua. However, my hope is that we can put aside political differences and partisan strategising and just get this done. It’s the right thing to do. It is time. I am open to debating all the ins and outs of my bill as drafted at the select committee—noting the issue around the timing of when our people could change rolls, especially before a by-election and before the general election. I’m not bound to all of the wording, but I am bound to get this across the line on behalf of our people. I look forward to the kōrero from our colleagues across the House this evening and working together to end racism and discrimination in our electoral system once and for all.

So my plea to everybody in the House tonight, e hika mā: tautoko mai i tēnei pire. Tautoko mai i tēnei pire hei oranga mō tangata whenua, mō Māori kia tarea anō hoki e tātou te whakatutuki.

[support this bill. Support this bill for the wellbeing of the people of the land, for Māori, so that this can be accomplished by all of us.]

The districts also are a lockout because if we have got 50 percent of Māori on the Māori roll, 50 percent on the general roll—let’s just say, in fact, that before the general election, they all change; the 50 percent from the general roll, or vice versa, change—and you get 100 percent on one of those rolls, we can’t change the electoral districts for a five-year period. It’s another five-year lockout. So that should be reviewed before every election—that should be reviewed before every election—to allow Māori a fairer shot not just in the voting process but also our representation in this House, because we know that every five years there is a census and every five years they determine how many people are on the Māori roll and on the general roll, which will determine how many seats Māori get in this House.

So these are some of the things that we really need to look at in terms of the electoral roll. We’re getting one shot. The last time is 1993, e hika mā. We’re getting one shot at this, and I want us to be able to do justice to the changes within the electoral law to allow Māori to be able to vote, to allow Māori a fairer representation in this House, and not only in this House but also councils around this country, because their elections are usually the year before the general elections—or the national elections.

So my plea to this House: support, at least to first reading, at least to select committee, so we can have the debate, and let’s nut it out there. Let’s give a fairer shot for tangata whenua and Māori in our electoral law. Kia ora tatou.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I also want to thank my colleague on the other side of the House, Rawiri Waititi, and Te Paati Māori for bringing this bill to the House. It’s sensible and it’s something that as the member Rawiri Waititi previously alluded to, has been called for for a long time. There were 20,000 people—well, just under 20,000 people—in the last election who approached the Electoral Commission and said, “Can we please switch rolls?” Whether it was from general to Māori or Māori back to general, there was a desire for just under 20,000 people to change their rolls, because of many different reasons, and we traversed some of that yesterday.

It is a sensible bill, and it’s, obviously, the member’s first member’s bill as well, so whilst we want to support it, we on this side of the House won’t be supporting it tonight, and for really good reason. It’s because, in this House, timing is everything, and the member’s member’s bill was actually pulled out of the ballot box the day after we had presented our Government bill to address this very issue—the very prior day. So we’re faced with a situation right now where we’ve actually already got a bill in train. The Government is progressing the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Bill, and a lot of the kōrero today will actually be mirrored by what we talked about just yesterday when we had the second reading of that bill. We’re expecting to be at the committee of the whole House stage very soon on that one. It’s been through the Justice Committee. It’s been open for submissions; people have submitted into the process. There is a potential double-up going on here. We agree with exactly what this member’s bill is trying to address: the fact that many people out there, many people that are of Māori descent, want to be able to change rolls. We want them to be able to do that too, so we’ve got our own piece of legislation to deal with that.

I want to just acknowledge, though, that the status quo is that four months, every five years, is how long you get to be able to decide if you want to be able to swap rolls. And some people catch that time frame; a lot of our whānau don’t. Whether it’s because they’re out there working, taking care of their families, actually, many people miss that opportunity. So as a Māori electorate MP, there’s actually a lot of pressure on us when it comes to actually listening to the concerns of our people, who, for whatever reason, want to have this conversation but only tend to have it whenever election year comes around. And then we have to tell them, “Oh, actually the last time you were allowed to change, it was actually two years ago.”, and they completely missed the boat.

Rawiri Waititi is right: you know, you then have to say the next time that they’re available to do this is 2024. That’s a really long time in-between the ability to be able to change the rolls, and it’s become more prominent because, as we freed up the legislation to enable Māori wards to be in councils all across Aotearoa, actually, there’s a new focus on the Māori roll. We have 66 new Māori councillors sitting around decision-making tables all across Aotearoa, and that’s really important. The only way that you can vote for one of those people who is sitting in those Māori wards, though, is that you have to be on the Māori roll. So, naturally, there are going to be people that want to be able to support their whanaunga, support their friends who are standing for election in local government to be able to stand in those Māori wards, but they want to be able to vote for them too.

As somebody that has stood for Parliament before, in both a general seat and a Māori seat, I understand the frustration. I understand the frustration of those around me who, when I decided to put my hand up for a general seat, everybody that I knew wanted to jump on the general roll—my whānau, my friends—and, actually, they do have that ability to, but the timing of that was all wrong. When I decided to stand for a Māori electorate seat, the same thing happened, but in reverse. This is a system that has been murky from the start, and the prior member, Rawiri Waititi, actually talked about the imposition of the Māori seats on our whānau Māori all across the country. It’s a system that we’ve had to adopt over the course of the years. It was imposed on us at the start, but, actually, our Māori seats are a taonga now. Actually, our Māori communities all around the country said it’s the only mechanism to have guaranteed representation of their voice in this Parliament.

So I support the concept here. I support the concept that our whānau should be able to change rolls freely. We support the sentiment of this member’s bill. But we’ve already got a bill that’s on the go, and, for that reason, we won’t be supporting this bill. It does speak to what we believe in the New Zealand Labour Party to be true, which is that in our 2020 manifesto commitment we included that, actually, we are committed to protecting the integrity of New Zealand elections. We are committed to ensuring that voters, Māori and non-Māori, have access to the polls, and we’re also including in that a commitment to reviewing the financing rules when it comes to elections as well. These are processes that we want to—well, especially this one, in terms of being able to change rolls freely. We want to get this sewn up so that it’s actually in good time for next year’s general election, 2023.

Whenever we make changes in this House to our voting rules, it needs to be taken really seriously. This isn’t something that we should be tampering or tinkering with around the edges; it’s something that needs cross-party support. So I’m proud that the Government bill that pledges to do something about this, the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Bill, has actually had a cross-party approach to it. It has been around the different parties so that they have been able to input into it. We’re still about to approach the committee of the whole House stage, so I’ll probably pass on a message to the member that if there are Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) or amendments that he wants to put in, actually, we have a train that’s already going and a process that’s already going, and I would encourage him to be able to put up those SOPs so that we can have that debate.

Because he’s right: we have to have a good, robust debate about this, about any kind of reform that involves our voting system here in Aotearoa. I want to have that, and let’s have that as a committee of the whole House. Bring your amendments, so that we can actually focus on getting this piece of legislation through in time for the 2023 general election and so that we can actually send a vote of confidence out there to Māori all across the country, who, if we look at our voting statistics, have got a declining participation in our electoral system. Anything that we can do to make it more open to allow Māori to be able to participate in our election process has got to be a good thing.

So this is a very well-meaning bill. It is something that I appreciate the member has brought to the House, but, tonight, we won’t be supporting it because we already have a piece of legislation. It is well in train. It’s ready for the committee of the whole House stage. I look forward to some of those finer points that he brings up that are contained in his member’s bill—I look forward to debating those as a whole House. I commend it to the House—I don’t commend it to the House.

Well, that was a slightly surreal finish to that speech from the member on the other side, Tāmati Coffey. It’s my pleasure to stand and speak on this Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill in the name of Rawiri Waititi. I do, sadly, have to pass on the message to the MP that we won’t, on this side, be supporting this bill either, for very similar reasons to the previous Labour Party speaker—and, of course, Labour’s votes are essential to passing any bills in this House, as it is with the numbers at the moment. What’s happened, of course, is that the Government has introduced a bill which is dealing with this issue around switching between the two rolls.

The practice up till now has been that only once every five years, at the time of the census, for four months afterwards, people have the ability to choose between the two rolls. The logic of that was because the numbers of the Māori seats were determined by the number of people on the Māori roll, because, fortunately, in this part of government we still adhere to the principle of one person, one vote and equal voting rights—all New Zealanders should have an equal voting right—and so the number of Māori seats should be proportional to the number of people on the Māori roll. So, changing, unfortunately, of course—that basic principle, that foundational democratic principle, is under threat at the local government level, and we’ll be fighting very hard in the next election to restore equal voting rights to that part of our government, but that’s a side issue.

But on this issue, of course, switching between the rolls within that five-year period between censuses could have some impact on the overall proportionality at the second election, but, of course, population changes in general electorates also have an impact as well, and so that’s not a not-overcomeable issue. The primary issue that we had with the legislation that the Government introduced, and which is part and parcel of this bill as well, is that it didn’t acknowledge, in allowing people to switch between rolls at any point, including on election day or the day before election day, and it didn’t allow for the very real possibility of what the previous Minister of Justice, Kris Faafoi, referred to as “tactical roll switching”, and that is people deciding which vote would have more impact in any given election, whether it’s on the Māori roll or the general roll, and deciding which one to go for in the lead-up to an election. So we weren’t enthusiastic about that.

What we’ve managed to achieve in our discussions with the Government is to ensure that we had the ability to have an exclusion around a period of a general election of three months, and also local elections as well, because that would be inappropriate. The Government did recognise this issue at the time when they introduced their bill, because they had an exclusion around by-elections for that very reason. There was no great logic for excluding by-elections but not excluding general elections and central elections, so the Government made that change and therefore we were prepared to support that bill.

This bill, of course, introduced by Mr Waititi doesn’t have that exclusion, and therefore we’re less inclined to support it. It also has some unusual features: the suggestion is to name everybody who’s on what’s now called the general roll—to divide it between the Māori roll and the non-Māori roll. I’m not quite sure that that’s an appropriate way of doing it. I don’t, sort of, regard myself as non-Māori; I regard myself as a New Zealander, and to sort of describe us as something that we are not is not something that is a very appealing proposition. So I’m not quite sure why he had that in mind. I also think—

💬 Rawiri Waititi: It’s not untruthful; it’s true.

Well, it may well be true, but it’s not—

Order! [Time expired]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the member Paul Goldsmith for his comments and I might pick up where he left off, but first I want to mihi to Rawiri Waititi. He is a politician in this House who will go down as one of the best of us. He is a delight around the select committee table, he has a huge heart for his people, he is an incredible orator, and his member’s bill is pretty good but it’s not good enough.

I didn’t know that when we were talking about tactical roll-switching—now, tactical roll-switching is not something I have observed, and it’s certainly not something the Electoral Commission has observed. But this fulla, he is a tactical roll-switcher! Let me tell you about how in 2014, Rawiri Waititi and I worked together on the Labour ticket. We were together out there engaging Māori voters as two young, promising Labour Māori candidates. There’s a lovely photo, and it has Soraya Peke-Mason, me, Rawiri, and our leader David Cunliffe—

💬 Shanan Halbert: And me!

—and Shanan Halbert. We’re all around David Cunliffe, giving a big rah-rah at Koroneihana, and he’s loving it—he is loving it. And it’s tactical, it’s thoughtful—and he is a tactical and thoughtful politician. He’s on that side of the House now, but we know he’s with us; and he knows we’re with him. And that’s why, on this issue, we broadly agree, but the House tonight is debating the question of “Whose bill does it better?” Is it Labour’s bill or is it the Māori Party bill? And on this one I have to say that Labour has landed a position here which is going to pass. And that’s got to be the test—our bill, on this side of the House, has landed on a consensus-based position which we wouldn’t have got to with this one. So I have to say that when we work together—Labour and the Māori Party—we get things done. And I thank Rawiri for bringing this bill, but that’s the reality.

It was a good election campaign, that 2014 campaign. I was a new candidate. I was running against Andrew Bayly; he was also a new candidate. We had a lot of fun on the campaign trail. Didn’t see any evidence of tactical roll-switching, but I saw some tactical switching to me as a candidate—some good National Party heartlanders told me that they were going to vote for me—

💬 Andrew Bayly: Really?

Yeah, that’s right! Went down to the local Baptist church with David Clark here, whose parents live in the electorate too, and I think I won the room that day on that debate. It was a good tactical switch—

💬 Jamie Strange: I was in Taupō.

—and Jamie Strange was running in that 2014 election, too; good proper candidates in 2014, I have to say—and Willow-Jean Prime, she beat me on the list. But she did well; she did well. And Rawiri would’ve done well too if he’d gotten up there ahead of Willow, but you know, Willow’s pretty good, so that’s why she’s up there.

Look, I just want to make a quick point further to my point about which bill solves this problem better, and it simply is the Government bill. But what I wanted to talk about a little bit more seriously is an important issue that Rawiri has raised here and has been commenting on in the media, and he’s raised a very useful discussion for us to have in this House, which is how we engage with Māori and how we make sure that Māori have their say in the democratic process.

Now, I know that a lot of that has to do with the way that people engage with their lives and their community around them more generally. It’s not just about politics, but it’s about people feeling like they have a say in the community, they have a stake in the community, that they belong there, that they are valued, and that their neighbours hear them, and that they can talk to these people. But then some of that is about being able to see, in their local politicians and in the leaders of political parties, people who look like them, and talk like them, and think like them.

That is a very real and important role of the Māori seats. It’s one I will always defend. It’s the reason I am on the Māori roll. And though I live in the heart of Manurewa and I cannot and will not ever be able to vote for myself, I believe in the Māori seats because they represent an avenue for Māori to seek the kind of representation which under Te Tiriti o Waitangi we are guaranteed, and this is a very reasonable and rational conversation for us to have about how we best exercise those rights.

Now, there’s something in Rawiri’s bill—it’s clause 5, which inserts new subsection (3) into section 76 of the Act—which I actually think doesn’t really do that. It’s about—if you are Māori, it says “… who possesses the qualifications in that behalf by this Act and first applies to be registered as an elector, does not specify whether they wish to be registered either as an elector of a Maori electoral district or as an elector of a non-Maori electoral district, they must be registered as a elector of the Maori electoral district.” I think that undermines the importance of the Māori seats and the way that they operate now, and that’s why I wouldn’t support it. And that’s why I can’t support this bill.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Thank you for the opportunity to take a short call on the member’s bill. Tuatahi māku e mihi kau ana ki a koe, e Rawiri. Nāu te waimarie i puta tēnei o ngā pire i te tīni pihikete, me kī, engari e mihi ana ki a koe.

[Firstly, I acknowledge you, Rawiri. You have been lucky to have this particular bill drawn from the biscuit tin, let’s say, but I acknowledge you.]

I can see there is a little bit of confusion in terms of taking this call, but I will carry on. Thank you to those who have made the contributions before me. What I wanted to add to that is today has been a really significant day for us in Parliament. We’ve had a special photograph taken, celebrating the fact that we are now 50:50 wāhine in Parliament. This evening, in the speeches, we had Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia recognised for the work that she did around—along with others and those that came later—ensuring that women could enrol and could vote. So I want to mihi to that tupuna of ours, wahine mana whai kaha kia tū tātou katoa i tēnei Whare i tēnei pō [a woman whose strength enables us to stand in this House tonight]. Secondly, I want to just acknowledge Iriaka Rātana, the first Māori woman to be elected to Parliament.

Like Arena Williams, I am actually on the Māori roll, and I am the MP for Northland, and there was a funny situation in the by-election, and that’s the point I really want to make around this, this evening. But in the by-election, , there were questions being asked about who I would vote for in that by-election, and I was proud to be able to say that my MP for Parliament was Kelvin Davis and I had already cast my vote. And to everybody’s surprise, they were like, “Ha! You’re not even on the general roll; you can’t vote for yourself.” And, you know, they couldn’t fathom that I wouldn’t be on the general roll and getting that additional vote for myself. I am still on the Māori roll, proud that Kelvin Davis is my MP, and even though I have that ability to switch rolls and to vote for myself, I fundamentally believe in the Māori seats in Parliament and will stay on the Māori roll because of it.

And you know what? It was so special to be able to vote in this year’s local body elections for my four candidates for the Ngā Tai o Tokerau seats in the Far North District Council and the Te Raki constituency in the Northland Regional Council. But I too have long understood the problem—the unfairness that exists—that we can only switch those rolls after a census every five to six years in a very short window of time when you get the little envelope with the orange guy on it; that every time you get it, it’s something a little bit different that you’re needing to respond to; and that within that four-month window, so many people missed that opportunity to switch rolls. Yet if I moved to a different area like I have—I’ve lived in Hamilton, I’ve lived in Wellington, and I’ve lived in Northland—I can change my electorate at any time that I move around. There is an inherent unfairness, and that’s what your bill—sorry, Mr Speaker, what the member’s bill—aims to address. But like has been mentioned in the House, we actually already have a bill which does that and is far more progressed than the member’s.

I am a member of the Justice Committee. We received over 120 submissions. Overwhelmingly, they pointed out the problems that, together, the member and our side of the House have identified and wish to address. If I could just say that in terms of our bill, the one thing it does mention is the by-election, and I do actually support this, because when I stood for Northland, you know, I already elected my member of Parliament—that was Kelvin Davis. To then be able to jump over and elect myself, I think, would be unfair, and you would be getting two bites at the cherry. So I do actually support that there be that restriction, that limitation, around by-elections, because you have already had that chance to choose your person. So I think that provision within our piece of legislation is preferable, but I absolutely support that we be able to change rolls freely and certainly more frequently than five to six years. But, unfortunately, I won’t be supporting the member’s bill because we have one already past second reading. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to do a special shout-out to my friend from across the aisle, Willow-Jean Prime, who has just resumed her seat. Thanks for taking call No. 5. It turns out I was No. 5. But also congratulations, Rawiri Waititi. This is a good bill, and it is not often that members’ bills are pulled from the ballot. Yours was pulled, mine had already been pulled, and then the Government put in their bill. And that’s because this is a good idea. It’s an idea that has been around for a long time.

There is absolutely no reason why those who are eligible to vote on the Māori roll should have to wait five years—and I did obtain, I have to say, as a cheat sheet, my friend’s notes on his bill, because it is important to give voice to all of the concerns here—and sometimes up to eight years, because, of course, if you become eligible to vote right before an election or far away from an election, that five-year period can make it into about an eight-year period where you can’t choose to switch rolls. That is an arbitrary restriction that limits democracy for Māori and that little thing that the Government keeps pushing for and keeps throwing around called “co-governance”.

It is good that there is a Government bill now. It was my aim when I put in my bill, the Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill, to give light to all of the different electoral reforms that had been recommended over the years by the likes of the Electoral Commission, the Waitangi Tribunal, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal—all of these things that had been floating around, and successive Governments had politicised: our democracy, the rules that make our democracy fair. And so it’s nice to have been able to give light to some of those reforms and to have this Government pick some of them up, including the electoral funding stuff, including this, including prisoner voting, including overseas voting.

But this is particularly important—constitutionally important—because we know that there was a time when democracy as we know it in Aotearoa New Zealand was designed, and it wasn’t designed with all of us in mind. It wasn’t designed to give voice to all of our concerns, to empower all of our communities, and it was certainly not designed to give force to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, our founding constitutional document. We know that Māori have always had democracy as part of their culture, and we know that tangata whenua have believed in decision making by democratic means in all sorts of ways, for ever. This is one version of democracy, and it was never built to empower Māori participation. We’ve realised that now because we see that Māori participation is unfairly down, and we see that marginalisation is real here.

So this is a good bill, but the Government bill doesn’t quite go far enough. Why wouldn’t we say that someone who has indicated that they are eligible to vote on the Māori roll would automatically go on the Māori roll? Why not? Someone designed the rule that they’re automatically on the other roll, and it wasn’t aimed at empowering Māori democracy. So why not shift it back? Why not call that Te Tiriti - based democracy?

I do find it really a little bit devastating for my friend Paul Goldsmith that that side of the House put him up to talk against tactical voting, as the National Party member for Epsom, the one electorate where tactical voting is all there is. The issue of one vote per person remains with this bill, with the Government’s bill, and with my bill when it comes to the Māori electoral option. We still all have one vote per person. It’s just about giving voice and giving mana and autonomy back to Māori voters. This bill does that far and away beyond the Government bill. We don’t always have to make deals with the conservative centrists; we can make deals with the Greens and with tangata whenua when we agree on things that the House should agree upon.

So I commend this bill, and I commend the Government’s bill, but I wish we were a little bit more progressive than all of that. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I stand to speak on the Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill on behalf of the ACT Party. Mr Rawiri Waititi, we’re not supporting this bill tonight. We’re not supporting the bill, but we do congratulate you on having your bill pulled from the ballot box.

Now, I do want to reply to a couple of things that have been said in the House this evening, including the fact that while some may think that Māori have been disadvantaged in New Zealand with the right to vote, I’m actually quite proud that we are one of the countries in the world that allowed women to vote first. And that included Māori women.

We were also one of the first countries in the world to allow indigenous people to have the vote. It’s not been all bad; it’s been pretty darn good, actually, and something I’m proud of and proud to participate in.

I remember when I first signed up on the electoral roll when I was living in Rotorua, and I didn’t understand the difference between the Māori roll and the general roll. I thought because I was a Māori, I had to sign up on the Māori roll. Then I read the fine print and understood I didn’t have to do that.

I read, I understood, I asked questions. That’s what a lot of people do, and I get tired of being felt like I’m a dumb Māori because I’m a Māori. I think that we need to actually enlighten ourselves and realise we are very capable people, and have achieved a heck of a lot in the 180 years that we have had this constitutional right to be able to vote.

Now, while we don’t support the bill, we do support one concept within it—and not all of it—and my colleagues across the House have addressed this as well. And that is that we do believe it’s not right that you can only change the roll that you’re on every five years.

We think that’s inadequate, it’s not flexible enough, and that that should be changed. And we are debating, at the moment in the House, the Government’s bill that’s going through. We will, as a party, look to address the upcoming Supplementary Order Paper and have discussions around that as well, because we do believe that there should be a change, but not the ability to just be able to change whenever you want over a three-year cycle.

Part of the reason why—and I did go through this last night, but I will go through it for the benefit of this bill. We have a constitutional way of being able to administer how we vote. This includes having a census, which is every five to six years. Then after that, there is only a very small window of four months where Māori can change rolls. The ones I’ve heard of are mostly wanting to get off the Māori roll, not get on it, but it’s a person’s individual choice to make and they should be able to. But that four-month window is inadequate and it’s so small.

The commission then sends the rolls to the Statistician after that period, and the Statistician then sends data back on to the electorates, and the commission then makes up the electorates. So when we look at what the member wishes to do in his second plan—which is to change the redraw of electoral boundaries—it’s actually not as simple as doing that. You have to work within the constitutional process. So we wouldn’t be able to do that piece anyway under what he is wanting.

Also, the third bullet point that the member has wanted to do is put an automatic placement on the Māori roll for members if they don’t choose which one. And I don’t agree with that. The ACT Party does not agree with that, that just because you tick a box that you’re Māori; if you don’t choose which roll you want to go on, you automatically go on to the Māori roll. There were some good examples that were delivered last night as to why that should not happen, including if you move yourself from your own rohe to a new one and don’t wish to vote on the Māori electorate in that new rohe.

Changing the name of the general roll to a non-Māori roll, well, that doesn’t suit ACT’s multi-ethnic society that we believe that we are in. It’s not about being Māori or non-Māori; in fact, non-Māori is absolutely negative—it’s a negative connotation. We would like to see words that are used that encompass everybody—all of New Zealanders—because that’s the way forward in this country.

So while we commend the member for having his bill drawn—because it’s not easy to do—we commend the debate that he wants to have; this is the place to have it. We unfortunately, though, will not be supporting this bill.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Thank you. First of all, I’d like to acknowledge the member in charge of the bill, Rawiri Waititi, and commend him for pushing through an important area. However, the bill primarily covers an area that is already being addressed through the targeted change that the Government is progressing in the bill that received its second reading in the House yesterday.

I think it’s a really interesting point, particularly the ability to move between both rolls. I think it’s important to note that you always nominate which roll you go on right from the start. You don’t automatically get put on any roll, but you need to be saying which roll you wish to go on, and that’s an important right within New Zealand.

I think it’s been a really interesting discussion through select committee on this issue: the submissions that we heard on the point of being able to change freely between the two rolls, the arguments for and against, and also the argument on whether or not you should have a three-month buffer, as we have arrived at with the bill that will be continuing in its final stages as it progresses through the House. When I think back on the submissions that we received on this issue, one springs to mind. There was one guy, who was particularly lively, who felt it was his right to be on both rolls. He argued really strongly that he had a right as tangata whenua and a New Zealander to be on both the general roll and the Māori roll and, in fact, get two votes. That was—

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: Was that Willie Jackson?

No, it was not Willie Jackson, and it wasn’t your grandmother, either. So I think that it’s an important issue that we do need to address.

My concern a bit about having that three-month buffer zone in the ability to change rolls is that the statistics that were provided by the Electoral Commission show that the big wave of people who wanted to change from either one roll or the other occurred in that build-up before a general election, because that’s when people turned their minds to what was happening, where they were living, and how they wanted to vote. So while there is an argument that people may strategically vote, there is also an equal argument that strategic voting is their right and they can choose to vote how they wish to vote. I think that is an incredibly important point.

I think it’s good to note that, wherever possible, changes to the voting system should be done in a cross-party manner, and that’s why, personally, I was really pleased to see consensus across the House in relation to the Government bill that covers this issue. I think it’s good that we are on the same page on the things that affect democracy and how we vote in New Zealand.

It was always going to be a difficult task for a member’s bill to undertake such a significant change to electoral law. It would also lead to a repeat submissions period for the Justice Committee and would duplicate the public consultation period of electoral reform that the independent review panel currently has under way and is doing.

On the Government bill, the timing of the Māori electoral roll option does clearly create a barrier for Māori voters who wish to participate in the electoral system, and that came through loud and clear in the submissions that we received. I think it’s important that we it take seriously that if there are barriers to people voting, wanting to vote, and being engaged, we have to take every action possible to make sure we reduce those. So this bill—the one that is progressing—will remove that barrier and allow Māori to change rolls more regularly if they wish to do so.

The member’s bill and the reserved provisions in the Electoral Act: the changes made to the Māori electoral option by this bill may also potentially trigger the reserved provisions of the Electoral Act in the same way that the Government bill does. This would mean that should the Māori Party bill make it to the committee of the whole House stage, it would also be subject to the same Speaker’s ruling as a Government bill, and it would be subject to a 75 percent majority requirement if the Speaker rules that the reserved provisions are triggered. So that’s another issue to consider in the context of this.

It’s also good to note the ongoing work in that wider review of electoral reform regarding how MMP is working and regarding that 5 percent threshold and the coat-tailing provisions. It’s always good to continually review how we’re operating and how MMP serves this Parliament. I’d like to conclude by saying that while MMP comes with its bumps along the way, for us to commemorate today having 50 percent of Parliament being comprised of women is largely due to MMP and the changes that that system enabled for a far more representative Parliament to take shape, and I’m proud to be part of the changes that have seen that happen.

So, to finish up, I would like to commend Rawiri Waititi, and I look forward to the Government bill progressing the idea that he supports as well. Ngā mihi.

Well, it’s no surprise—just about everyone in the House is not supporting the bill, but in doing so it is important to acknowledge the member, Rawiri Waititi, because I think we all understand the work, effort, and passion that goes into putting a member’s bill forward, and speaking passionately to that. So I’m looking forward to Rawiri’s concluding remarks.

Look, fundamentally—in concept—the National Party and myself have no concerns about the movement between rolls. The big issue has been around the timing. And as we supported, yesterday, the Government’s bill in this space, it was all about saying yep, a four-month window after a general election is far too narrow, but being able to chop and change, if you will, right up to an election day or a by-election doesn’t cut the mustard.

Just a few other quick points, because I don’t really want to waste the House’s time; there’s been a lot of talk here about tactical voting. Well, that’s how you choose to exercise your vote, that’s not about moving your physical vote around to suit the circumstances. There’s a big distinction.

Obviously, I’m not Māori myself; I’ve said that many times before. But I would just make the point that Māori are not just one single homogeneous group. There are many views within Māoridom, and we’ve heard some from within the ACT Party and others. So I just think it’s important to say that. Just as I’m not able to speak for all good-looking white men! Sorry, that’s just terrible.

So anyway, I just want to end it there. I just actually want to commend the member, I’m looking forward to his response. But in this case, National will not support the bill. But we are pleased to continue supporting what is the Government’s bill at this time.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on Rawiri Waititi’s Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill. E mihi atu ki a koe e te tuakana, e Rawiri.

[Thank you to you, my brother Rawiri.]

Thank you for the work that you’ve done behind this. It was only a few weeks ago that Rawiri and myself, Rachel Boyack, Nicola Grigg, and Simon Watts travelled across to Canada as a delegation on behalf of this Parliament to meet with First Nations people, to meet with parliaments in Canada, and, I guess, to share some of the work that we’ve been doing in Aotearoa New Zealand. When we came to meet with different groups, in every meeting that we had, groups were interested in our democratic system and how well our First Nations indigenous people were doing it in Aotearoa New Zealand. We spoke openly about the progress that this Parliament has made in representation, and we started talking about the appointment of our new Speaker, the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe. We talked about the number of Ministers in this House now that have an indigenous background, through to the 20-odd members that are indigenous in this House, and then Rawiri would jump in and include, as well as—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could you just respect Mr Waititi by using his surname, please.

Thank you. Then Mr Waititi would jump in and talk about the only indigenous party in the world and in Aotearoa. While I was challenged by that point at the time, it does reflect the evolution in our representation of our indigenous people in this country. Fundamentally, when we look at this bill, what Mr Waititi and I agree on is better representation and participation for Māori in our democratic system.

The second part in this discussion is how we achieve that. What’s important here is that most of all, the thing that we want to achieve is to increase Māori to turn out and vote come election time. For me, the steps that we make to ensure that we get the best number of votes from Māori in each election, whether that be central or local government, is fundamentally what is important for me in the decision making in such bills.

Yesterday, we went through the Government’s bill and we talked through the opportunity that that presented in a larger scale than Mr Waititi’s bill in front of us, the opportunity that that presents to Māori, and the opportunity that that presents to our democratic system. So tonight I won’t be supporting this bill, on the basis that—

💬 Hon Members: Aw!

Tata—tata. I want to acknowledge the work of Mr Waititi, of course, and our goals are the same. I opened with the whakataukī “Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi”—that with my food basket, with your food basket, our community and our people will flourish. The work that we do to achieve the goals for Māori is—you know, one way we can go is via a member’s bill, the other way we can go is via the Government’s programme of work. On this one, my friend, we will be going via the Government’s programme of work, but the important thing is that the outcome and the achievements for our people fundamentally the same.

Just to finish off, as somebody with indigenous whakapapa in this country—to Ngāti Whitikaupeka and to Rongowhakaata— I am on the general roll, and it’s a decision that I made for myself to be represented in that particular space. I also have European whakapapa, and that was the right place for me. But for my father and my cousins, I fundamentally believe that they have the right to decide which roll that they sit on, who best represents them. But most of all, the thing that really counts for me is that they turn out in local and central government elections and that they make their vote count.

So I just want to acknowledge, finally, my friend, my tuakana, Rawiri Waititi, my kaihaerenga and a wonderful gentleman to travel with, and I look forward to having KFC with you after this, but unfortunately I’m unable to support this bill tonight.

Well, I’ve heard many an oxymoron this evening: “It’s sensible, but we will not be supporting it.”

I just want to acknowledge the first speaker, Tāmati Coffey, who actually talked about being on the general roll and the Māori roll. He’s still on the general roll, and I just want to thank him for his vote at the last election. Because he couldn’t vote for anybody else, he voted for me. He was still on the general roll at that particular time. But, anyway, just moving on from that, there was some interesting kōrero. One speaker talked about tactical voting, and the seat that he currently sits in only has tactical voting, and it’s decided over a cup of tea. Yes, I do remember 2014, Arena. When you decide to see the light, the Māori Party will be waiting for you. We’ll always be waiting here with open arms, for all those Māori on that side. Haere mai, hoki mai, hoki mai ki te kāinga.

[Welcome, return, come back home.]

So this has been an interesting process in actual fact. And, just to put on the record, in terms of the Hansard, my bill was drawn out and then, a minute later, Labour announced that they were doing the same thing. I can tell you that it was a minute later, because it’s in our press release that went out at the same time as it was drawn. So it’s an interesting space, but it was not a month after; it was actually a minute later that Labour announced their bill for the electoral roll. So ours was actually drawn first.

💬 Hon Member: Now the truth comes out!

Yes, there’s the truth, and it’s now in the Hansard, and I will back it up with the evidence.

I just want to thank the Greens and Golriz for supporting this particular bill. There are only two parties in this House with common sense this evening, but I do want to have a look at some of the other things. This bill never ever questioned anybody’s whakapapa. It never ever questioned anybody’s Māoritanga, but what it did question was their ability to advocate for their Māoritanga. So this wasn’t about questioning whakapapa; this was about being able to stand up for tangata whenua—being able to stand up for a tangata whenua point of view on this issue. Yes, Labour has a similar bill, but it’s like an empty Christmas tree. This bill was a Christmas tree with all the decorations, lights, and the presents underneath it, and we’ve chosen to ignore it. But it’s OK—it’s OK. We will continue to fight to ensure a fairer democratic system for tangata whenua. But it never took away anything, and it never was about threatening the vote of others that are in our democracy. This was just allowing our people to have a fairer process in this country’s democracy, because, for a long time, we have been shut out. And, like I said, it’s over an eight-year period of being shut out for our people.

So I just want to thank everybody for their contributions. I’m a little bit disappointed that we weren’t able to get this over the first reading and be able to debate the other parts of this bill, which are actually missing from the Labour bill, the Government bill. It would have been nice to be able to sit there, I think, and have a robust discussion and kōrero across all the parties about the other parts of this bill, which are missing from their bill. It’s all about the ability to be able to have these robust debates, but, look, the blocks have been put up and we will continue to ensure that the voice of our constituents, in which this bill was created, on their dreams and aspirations, will have to come through other avenues. But we will continue to fight to ensure that their voices are heard in this particular process.

I can hear that the two major parties didn’t support it. ACT? Well, I wasn’t surprised—I wasn’t surprised. The leader of the ACT Party gives me a serve on the way out. Kei te pai tēnā. Boom! Anyway—

💬 Karen Chhour: Point of order. We don’t actually allow—

I’m still speaking, Mr Speaker.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, it’s a point of order, sorry.

💬 Karen Chhour: —speeches to mention that somebody is not in the House.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: He actually mentioned that he was leaving the House. The conversation was still taking place in the House. So we’ll resume—31 seconds to go, Mr Waititi.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I knew that. I know my Standing Orders. He was on the way out of the House. Anyway, regardless of that, I look forward to other members’ bills. I’m thankful that the karakia were heard for this particular bill. I take it from that that the others didn’t hear the same karakia. But, anyway, it will do for the next member’s bill, to ensure that we are able to continue to advocate for our people and for our constituents in this House. Kia ora tātou.

The House is suspended, and I will resume the Chair at 9 a.m. tomorrow for the extended sitting. Good night, members.

Sitting suspended from 9.57 p.m. to 9 a.m. (Thursday)