Conflict in House on electoral reform

Press, 20 September 1980, Page 11

Conflict in House on electoral reform

PA Wellington The Opposition signalled that the path to electoral reform will not be smooth, when Parliament tackled the question again this week.

The occasion for the renewed attack was the reporting back of the Electoral Amendment Bill from the Select Committee on Electoral Reform, with a recommendation that the bill proceed, with minor amendment.

The senior Labour member on the committee, Mr A. J. Faulkner, immediately moved that the bill be referred back to the committee for additional consideration.Time was not an object when people’s rights were at stake, he said. In effect, the committee has managed to remove one of the three main areas of disagreement between the two parties — the question of the display of party names, logos, and emblems on polling day, which the bill originally banned. The chairman of the committee, Mr P. I. Wilkinson (Nat., Kaipara), said that the Government was prepared to concede that it would not be an offence to wear a party lapel or badge. However, the committee made no progress on the pther two areas of disagreement— the removal of party designations from ballot papers, and ’ the delay of the next Maori option until 1982.

Mr Faulkner said that the delay of the Maori option — the system by which Maori voters elect to enrol in either Maori or European seats — meant that at a time when the electoral rolls were in a mess Maoris could not check their enrolment until after the 1981 General Election.

He called for a scientific survey to discover what form'of ballot paper voters would prefer. Until that was done, Labour would opt for the present paper complete with party affiliation. Mr Faulkner said that it was unfortunate that the Government would not agree to simple amendments in these two areas, because the two parties were in basic agreement over the other 90 per cent of the bill, under which the Post Office will

take complete responsibility for the compilation of electoral rolls, using a computerised system. The reregistration of voters at each census \x7ill be replaced by three-yearly roll revisions, the first of which will occur in October. Mrs Whetu Tirikatene-Sul-livan (Lab. Southern Maori) continued the Opposition attack, asserting that the Government saw an electoral advantage in perpetuating the present roll chaos. There was no justice in the bill for the Maori voter, she said.

Mr G. W. R. Thompson (Nat., Horowhenua) said that the Government had, in fact endorsed the rights of the Maori‘voters in the bill by its agreement to continue the system of Maori seats.