Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on this bill. I just want to start my comments by just reflecting a little bit on the Minister of Justice's attitude that he's taken to this bill through the Parliament. I must say that I have found some of the comments that he has made to be quite offensive. He's called the Opposition to have some sort of crazed mania. He's called us deranged. He said that we have a crazy pattern of voting. There seems to be a pattern of words that he uses which I actually find quite offensive and wording which I think he should reflect on when talking about members of the House.The reality is that the National Party and the Government have a different view on this issue—everyone knows that. The National Party comes from a principled perspective that we do not support prisoners sentenced to jail having the right to vote. The Government—and they have a range of perspectives—do think that some prisoners if not all prisoners should have the right to vote. That's the compromised position of the Government which is that prisoners serving less than three years should be able to vote and those serving more than three years shouldn't—that's the compromised position. Let's just be honest about it: it's a compromised position. That's what the Government parties have come to. It's not principled as the Minister of Justice tries to tell the Parliament—it's not a principled position to stand up here and say that this is a human rights issue if you're not going to afford the rights to all prisoners to vote. We on this side of the House come from a very clear perspective that those who do the crime should do the time. That's the perspective that we've approached this issue with all the way through.I just want to allude to some of the comments that my very learned colleague Chris Penk raised in relation to what happened last week in this Parliament in relation to the Supplementary Order Paper of the Green Party. Clare Curran said Well this is a fix-it bill fixing up the issues put to us by the National Party." and trying to lay blame. It's not our job to run the show. It's not our job to run this place. It's not our job to make things go nicely and smoothly for the Government. It's not our job to make your job easier; it's our job to hold the Government to account. When the Green Party rocks up to this House with a Supplementary Order Paper which essentially basically pulls apart the legislation and the intent that the Government's trying to bring to this Parliament there's an opportunity there to point out the inconsistency of the Government's position and the inconsistency and the unprincipled position that this Government comes to this issue with and that's exactly what the National Party has done and now the Government is having to come with their tail between their legs and spend all of Tuesday afternoon trying to fix up their own mess.I ask the question: was this Government acting irresponsibly last Tuesday when they brought a bill to Parliament and they put it through under urgency through the committee of the whole House through the third reading and then continued to support it knowing that it potentially was flawed? Was that irresponsible or did they do that not fully understanding what they were doing? If they did—if they weren't fully aware because of their rushed process and the urgency and the moving of time and it happening very quickly—then were they acting incompetently and irresponsibly? They have to reflect on that question because there are many examples that I could point to of incompetence and irresponsible actions by this Government which they have taken. But I would let them reflect on those themselves.This bill essentially has a few small aspects to try and basically ensure that none of the Green Party's Supplementary Order Paper actually makes it into law. So essentially the Green Party has come to Parliament tonight and they're voting to ensure that none of their Supplementary Order Paper from last week makes it into law. They have agreed to a process to ensure that their changes which they put forward their diligent principled Supplementary Order Paper which they put forward to say that all prisoners should have the right to vote—they've come to Parliament today to essentially give in and say "We are going to be happy with not one part of our Supplementary Order Paper coming into law." That's just another example of how the Green Party is having to give up—again—something else. They haven't got their light rail they haven't got anything else and now they're not even getting anything through under this bill.I wonder what the deal was that the Minister spoke about in his speech where he said that there was some sort of deal done where a quick conversation was done between the three parties where they agreed to this process this week. Where's the transparency around what was agreed by the Green Party?Hon David Bennett: They probably got a couple of eels; they're slimy enough.SIMEON BROWN: Maybe a couple of eels as David Bennett says. But something was agreed. I'd like the Green Party to stand up and take a call and give New Zealanders some openness and transparency from the most open and transparent Government that New Zealand has ever seen—well hopefully we'll see that when you know the Hon Tracy Martin she'll soon be taking a call and explaining what the New Zealand First Party got out of this or what the Green Party might have got because the reality is that there would have been a deal done to make this be brought to the House this week after what happened in the debacle of last week.So essentially this bill fixes up a terrible mistake that the Government opened themselves up to which was that it made Corrections staff have to assist all prisoners to enrol to vote regardless of how long they'd been sentenced despite the fact that the same bill they passed said that only prisoners who had been sentenced to less than three years were actually entitled to be enrolled and entitled to vote. Essentially the bill that Government members passed was to make Corrections officers act illegally. That went to Royal assent yesterday as we've heard. They passed a piece of legislation to make Corrections officers act illegally. That's something which I think is completely irresponsible and incompetent. They should apologise to Corrections officers for what they have done to them.The last point that I want to make is around the rights of victims. I raised this point in each of my speeches—in this bill and in the previous bill—because there is nothing in this bill about the rights of victims of crime. We all know on this side of the House how crime affects our communities and how devastating it can be. The story that we're told is that people serving sentences of less than three years are somehow not serving for serious offences; they're going to be released soon so we have to give them the right to vote.I want to remind the House what the Justice Committee heard when considering the previous bill—in noting that there was no select committee under this bill so there were no submissions that we can refer to. In a submission that was received there was evidence provided to the committee which showed that during the 2018/19 year 1929 serious violent offenders were sentenced to three years or less for crimes such as manslaughter sexual assault abduction and acts intended to cause injury. What in this bill gives any rights to those victims of those crimes? I find that shameful—that we've heard this Government talk about the rights of prisoners but do nothing and say nothing about the rights of the victims of those crimes who are the ones left behind and are the ones who are the elephant in the room from this Government. I find that absolutely shameful.Lastly both bills have gone through an absolute shambolic process. We've seen the Government use urgency. We've seen the Government use extended hours. We've seen the Government use COVID-19 to rush this bill through. Whilst New Zealanders were focused on their lives and their livelihoods and their businesses the Government's priority was giving prisoners the vote. I find that absolutely shameful. They've had three years to do this—three years to do this—Simon O'Connor: Three long years.SIMEON BROWN: —but they used—three long years to do this—the last few months before the election to rush this through. I think that's incredibly cynical. I proudly stand opposed to this bill."