Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe ōtirā ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. The only shambles in this House is that contribution by that former Minister—the only shambles in the House is the contribution of that member Dr Nick Smith who just resumed his seat. Let's come back to the principle of the bill. The principle of the bill means that people sentenced to less than three years in prison will have their voting rights returned. That's the bill. But I don't just agree with that. It was the law in this nation before 2010. It was the law of the nation in 2010 in this country that every prisoner had the vote under three years. But who changed that? That side changed it. That side changed it despite their own member Christopher Finlayson talking about the breach of human rights. But it also talked about how the High Court the appeal court the Supreme Court and the Waitangi Tribunal really went to task about the law disenfranchising prisoners. So the Minister has brought this bill to the House and that is what we are debating in this first reading: to return to prisoners sentenced to less than three years the right to vote as in 2010.I want to talk just briefly about the select committee because there have been some allegations in this House around the short process. It couldn't be anything wrong or misleading in terms of the people in Aotearoa New Zealand who submitted on this bill—2500 written submissions. And not only that; over 17½ hours that we heard in evidence.I also want to pick up on that former member who made the allegations around the lack of support from the justice ministry. They couldn't be further from the truth. We had a very comprehensive departmental report and officials supported the select committee throughout its deliberation of this bill. Hon Dr Nick Smith: They couldn't give a full report.Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: Yes they did—yes they did. But I want to just in the time that I have talk about what the side means in terms of voters and the role of rehabilitating many of our prisoners back into society. Because we heard that submission from many submitters around the importance of connecting prisoners under three years back into their communities back into their families. This is what this bill is doing.But it's also part of a broader suite of electoral reforms like being able to enrol on election day. Who's done that—who's done that? The coalition Government did that. It was also around putting ballots in supermarkets and making it accessible for many people. This bill should be seen in the wider context that we believe the democratic rights of Kiwis to vote is critical and that's what we're debating here in this first reading. I'm not going to comment about the shenanigans that went down last week. The Minister's ably covered that in his contribution. But I am proud to be on the side of this House in the coalition Government that recognises the democratic right of prisoners serving less than three years' prison sentence. I want to again acknowledge the 2500 people that submitted but particularly want to acknowledge the young people that appeared before our select committee that talked about human rights that talked about the bill of rights of all New Zealanders who also talked about the importance of the Waitangi Tribunal. I couldn't be more proud of the younger people coming through this country who take the view around electoral law around rights of prisoners that seriously. I commend this bill to the House.