Smith, in his capacity as National's electoral reform spokesperson, criticized in March 2019 the Labour members of Parliament's Justice Select Committee for blocking China expert and political scientist Anne-Marie Brady from testifying at a select committee hearing about interference from the Communist Party of China and its local proxies in the 2017 general election. Raymond Huo, the Chair of the Justice Select Committee, had declined Brady's application on procedural grounds that she had submitted her application five months after the deadline in September 2018. Smith criticized the Labour members of the select committee for blocking Brady on the grounds that it ignored Justice Minister Andrew Little's instruction that the committee consider the issue of foreign interference. As a result, the Labour Government reversed its initial decision to exclude Brady.