Bridges Simon: Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Bridges Simon: Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15189] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 The Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill is a worthy bill from a great citizen of New Zealand Paul Quinn. What a great citizen of New Zealand! He has done a lot of good things in his life. Some other members are saying that this will be his finest hour but I have a feeling he will get comfortable in that green chair over time. I have a feeling he might get to sit in it a little bit more in the future. But not only does this man champion the Hutt Valley— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Will the member include him in his Cabinet? 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: If Paul Quinn is in Parliament he will be in my Cabinet. Not only does this member champion the valley but in his spare time he is coming up with a lot of legislation and a lot of ideas and this is a very good one from that member. 
Stuart Nash says this bill is about petty criminals but I ask him whether it really is about petty criminals. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Petty tax fraud they said before. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: I am sure members opposite say that to people who have been ripped off by so-called petty tax fraud. It seems to me that one of the central debates throughout the readings of the bill and now in the Committee stage is whether sending someone to prison is serious enough to take their right to vote from them. Absolutely it is. 
The last Labour Government during its several years in office liberalised the law and I am not saying I necessarily disagree with that. It introduced a number of sentences—I think it was seven—that one could get before imprisonment. One can go through supervision intensive supervision electronic bail and electronic this that and the other thing before one gets home detention. To be sentenced to imprisonment a criminal has to have been convicted of a serious offence. Not only that person’s liberty but also their right to vote should be denied. 
I think Paul Quinn has done a very good thing here. We come back to the question of principle. Should serving prisoners have the right to vote? That is ultimately what this comes back to. 
Grant Robertson 
: But that’s how it is now. You have to argue why they shouldn’t. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: I ask the member to give me a reason why serving prisoners should have the right to vote. Give me two or three reasons why they should have the right to vote. 
Grant Robertson 
: No no that’s the status quo. You’re the one changing it; you make the reason. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: Those members do not like it do they? There is no reason why serving prisoners should have the right to vote. Those people have landed in the clink because they have done something serious. They have not stumbled their way into prison as Lianne Dalziel or Stuart Nash would have us think. Those people have systematically committed serious crimes. Under the Sentencing Act the judge has to go past a number of other sentences before getting to imprisonment. The law says that for people to be sentenced to imprisonment the judge has to be satisfied that none of those other sentences are suitable. I ask Labour members to tell me why serving prisoners should have the right to vote. The only reason I can think of is that Labour wants prisoners to vote; it thinks that prisoners should have the vote. Why should they? I ask Labour members to give me some good reasons. 
Lianne Dalziel talked about how it was a civic duty to vote. I absolutely disagree with that. I absolutely disagree that it is a civic duty to vote. That is why I am against and have been consistently against compulsory voting. I do not think people have a duty to vote. People can opt out of the system if they want to do so and decide not to vote. Members should not get me wrong; I think people should vote. As a personal choice I think people should— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Labour’s soft on crime. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: Labour members are soft on crime. They want criminals to vote. I think people should not opt out. They should take seriously their right to vote and they should look at the options but it is not a duty. Labour members do not like what I am saying and it probably is controversial but I think of council elections and the plethora of choices people have. Unless a person has gone through and thought about all of the candidates does that person have a duty to vote? I do not think so. If people do not know the candidates maybe the best thing for them is not to exercise their right to vote. 
I come back to the fact that it is a right to vote not a duty. Yes it is a precious right that this country needs to guard jealously. As I said during this bill’s first reading it is a right that people have gone to war for have fought over and have shed blood over. It is not quite right to say that ultimately all wars are fought over democracy and the vote but one could almost make that case certainly for wars in the last century. It is a right that should be used responsibly. It is a right that has to be jealously guarded. Should we give that precious right to vote that people have gone to war over to serving prisoners who have done something exceptionally serious? As a society we have decided that we need to incarcerate those people and keep them inside. Should we then give them the vote? 
Labour is on the side of the criminals on this. Labour says that we should give prisoners the vote. All I ask of those Labour members who stand in this House and speak on this bill is that they give me some substantive reasons why prisoners should vote. 
Grant Robertson 
: Who’s changing the law? You’re changing the law; you give the reason. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: I have said why we are changing the law. Prison is the sentence for a very serious offence. Voting is a precious right that comes with responsibilities. Prisoners forfeit that right. They have done something to cause us to say: “You are going inside. You must be kept away from society.” Maybe it is old-fashioned but I do not want those people inside people who have been incarcerated to have the vote. When they come out of prison and have been rehabilitated back into society let us give them the vote. 
I think we are on the side of the angels here and the Labour members are on the side of the criminals. Labour members say that criminals who have done very serious drug offending or as Stuart Nash said have committed serious fraud should be able to vote. I do not think so. Voting is a precious right that has been fought over in war. 
I commend Paul Quinn for championing the valley for bringing in this bill and for doing something good. I am sure it will not be the last good worthy solid piece of work he will do in this House.