Hipkins Chris: Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hipkins Chris: Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I will begin by for the first time—and possibly for the only time—endorsing 100 percent the comments made by Hone Harawira in the speech that he just made on the Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill. There was nothing in the speech he made that I disagreed with; there was much in the speech he made that I strongly endorse and think members on all sides of the House would be well advised to listen to. I think we should take on board much of what he has to say not just in this debate but in many other debates when it comes to law and order and the incarceration of prisoners. 
With the possible exception of the last contribution from Simon Bridges the common feature and common characteristic of all of the other contributions from the other side of the House is that the speeches have been filled with anger and hatred. I can understand that to some extent when it comes to debates about law and order. I can understand it when it comes particularly to serious criminals and their serving of time in prison. But the problem is that when it comes to debates about law and order anger and hatred seldom advance matters very far at all. In fact the point that Hone Harawira made which I totally endorse is that so many of the people in our prisons feel nothing but anger and hatred from the society around them and often know no different from that. Often they have never felt anything other than anger and hatred from the society around them; they have become so disenfranchised. That is a contributing factor to their offending. 
This bill will disenfranchise them from society even further. Voting is a duty that all citizens should have with the exception—and I accept this exception—of the most serious criminal offenders who are already prevented under the law from voting. There have been many reviews of this law including a royal commission a review by the Solicitor-General and comments recently on this bill by the Attorney-General—the National Government’s own Attorney-General—all of which have said that it is not justified to remove the ability to vote from somebody who is sentenced to imprisonment for a term of less than 3 years. I totally agree with that. We cannot treat people differently depending on when they are sentenced and when they serve their sentences. People who would never have the opportunity to vote anyway because there may not be an election during the time they are in prison could be removed from the electoral roll. Somebody may be in prison for 6 months between elections and they would never have the opportunity to vote even if they were out in public. Yet they would be removed from the electoral roll. 
We spend so much time getting people on to the electoral roll in the first place and some of the people who are the most difficult to get on to the roll in the first place are the people who are disenfranchised from our community. We struggle to get the people who are more likely to go to prison on to the electoral roll in the first place yet this bill removes them from the electoral roll. It is not justified. It will further marginalise them from our community. 
Tough on crime rhetoric is the easy part. Dealing with the underlying social causes of criminal offending the disenfranchisement from society and the total feeling of anger that exists within many of the people in our prisons is something we have to think long and hard about. We do not do a good job of this because the political rhetoric is too hard on any side of this political debate. It is very difficult to deal with this issue in a way that will look good on the news and will make people likely to vote for us. Yes there are votes in being seen to be hard on criminals. There are very few votes unfortunately in dealing with the root causes of crime and criminal offending because they are not easy and they do not fit on a bumper sticker. 
We have to get past that because New Zealand already has one of the highest incarceration rates in the developed world. We have nearly twice as many people per capita in prison as Australia does. The gene pool of its population was hand-picked by the best magistrates in the United Kingdom yet Australia apparently has a lower level of criminal offending than New Zealand. I simply do not accept that. I believe and accept that the political rhetoric in New Zealand has gotten to the point where we can no longer have a rational debate about this issue. We have to step back from that rhetoric. The tough on crime rhetoric has to stop. We have to take this matter much more seriously and this bill is not the way to advance these issues.