Little AndrewELECTORAL (REGISTRATION OF SENTENCED PRISONERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): I move That the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 2 June and that the committee have authority to meet at any time except during oral questions while the House is sitting during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 191 193 and 194(1)(b) and (c).This bill now upholds the fact that our bill of rights the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act actually means something. Ten years ago members opposite voted to remove the voting rights of prisoners on short-term sentences and were told at the time by the Attorney-General of the day that that would be inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. In light now of determinations by the High Court the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and the Waitangi Tribunal this House is now going to reconsider the issue.And it would be a great pity—Brett Hudson: Right in the middle of coronavirus!Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —if there were members opposite who thought that it was a trivial thing—Brett Hudson: The greatest priority the justice Minister has at this time is this—is this?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —that enacting law inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act was something we could be dismissive of. So we will hear the chirping from at least one member opposite—he can carry on doing it—but the reality is that what happened 10 years ago was an obscene act by those who voted for the change and we're now putting that change back. It is about the integrity of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act so I am glad we are doing that.There are a lot of things you have to do when you're in Government. Sometimes you've got to do the immediate stuff sometimes you've got to do the very big stuff and sometimes you have to do stuff that is principled and important. This is what that is.Simeon Brown: Get a life!Hon ANDREW LITTLE: And this is what that is. I'm glad I have the life that I've got which is about being principled and being able to juggle the big things the small things and the principled things. The younger members opposite will have time to rehearse that. They'll have time to get used to it. They'll sit in their warm leather seats for a few more years yet and maybe if they're lucky they'll get the opportunity to do so.This is about making sure that we better facilitate participation in the electoral system for people who have been sent to prison for a brief period of time. This bill actually does two things. It means that those sentenced to a sentence of imprisonment of less than three years—therefore those whose offending is at the lower end of the scale—and who at some point between one election and the next are going to get out of prison have the right to choose the leaders of the country that they're going to be released as a free person into. And it does another thing too. It says that for those who are on longer sentences in prison the Department of Corrections will facilitate their reinstatement on the roll.See the most insidious thing about the 2010 law change wasn't just the removal of the right to vote. I accept—I accept—that when it comes to those who offend criminally those who offend and act against the standards of social conduct we expect to the point where they are taken out of society and deprived of their liberty there is an argument about how far you take that removal of their rights as a citizen. That is an arguable point and we remove their liberty—or at least we deprive them of their liberty—they lose their right of freedom of movement and freedom of association they have heavily limited rights of freedom of speech; they can write to Ministers and write to some others but that is heavily scrutinised. So they lose a lot of rights and it is right and proper that we debate that when people act antisocially and they offend against their community. But this is about saying to those who we know are going to be out of prison between one election and the next that they must have a right to have a say on who is going to lead the country and the community that they are going to be released into.The other thing the bill does is as I say allow those on longer sentences to be enrolled—sorry the point I was making was that the most insidious thing about the 2010 law change is that it did not just stop the right to vote; it actually forced those people to come off the electoral roll. And of course the nature of these things—the nature of this community that goes to prison and comes back out again—is they have much more pressing things to think about when they're out of prison and they never go back on the roll. What was enacted in 2010 was a voter suppression measure—a voter suppression measure—which in some parts of the world is absolutely anathema; maybe in the southern states of the United States it's kind of popular but it's not something we should tolerate lightly here and that's why this bill is here. We're going to put back that right to vote because what happened in 2010 was unnecessary and it is undermining the integrity of our electoral system if those who actually ought to be voting once they're out of prison are set up in a system that makes it harder for them not just to vote but even to get on the roll and we wanted to change that.It was interesting what the Waitangi Tribunal said when they considered the whole thing. They wanted all voting rights to be returned to all prisoners and I don't agree with that but they said that as a consequence of the 2010 law change in 2018 Māori were 11.4 times more likely to be removed from the electoral roll as a result of receiving a prison sentence—11.4 times more than any others entering prison. So there is an obvious inequity there which has led the Waitangi Tribunal to reach the conclusions that they did.This bill is based on this basic principle: people who will likely be released or who will be released back into their communities during a parliamentary term should have the right to have a say on the Government and those who represent them in their communities. This will affect about 1900 people who will have their right to vote restored ahead of the 2020 general election.I might add too just for the sake of completeness that it is not every prisoner who is deprived of the right to vote. Those on remand continue to have a right to vote—and remand prisoners now comprise about 40 percent of our prison population. We are an outlier in the developed world for the size of our remand prison population and on the current trajectory we are told that by 2025 50 percent of our prison population could be remand prisoners. It would be an absurdity if you're on remand—that huge chunk of the prison population get the right to vote. The Electoral Commission has to make sure that all the facilities are in place and they can vote and those who are going to be out before the next election—it could be only a month before the next election it could be two and a half years before the next election—they don't get to have a right to have a say on who's going to lead the country that they're going back into whereas some of those on remand may actually when they get their final sentencing carry on. So there is an absurdity that has been introduced by that 2010 law. It was unnecessary and it should change.It was interesting that a number of submitters to the recent Electoral Amendment Bill—now an Act—raised this point and they wanted that piece of legislation to cover this point off. It was out of scope but many many people considered it and when a lot of people think about our electoral rights and our electoral laws and they look at the disqualification provisions they say that what is there is just not right and it should change.As I said before the other change the bill makes is to require the Department of Corrections to work with prisoners once they're eligible to vote and get their consent to enrol. So it's one of those release factors at the point of release and before they go on their way—regardless of what else happens—the Department of Corrections will now have a role to play in making sure the best is done to get them back on the roll and they will have some powers to do that and to work with the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Commission will have to receive the information from the Department of Corrections on that. That I think will address the residual issue that the Waitangi Tribunal raised which is that the disqualification of prisoners on longer sentences is also problematic. I think the main thing is that if we strive to get them back on the roll once they are a free person—once they've been released from prison—then I think we will be acting with integrity in relation to our electoral laws and our electoral system. The ex-prisoner would have to consent to enrolling. Some may not wish to enrol and some will have fear for their lives and their families once they're released and there'll be issues about whether they go on the confidential roll as well.So all those issues will have to be resolved and sorted out and this is about making sure that when we say we have free and fair elections we are not unduly disqualifying those who should have a right to vote that we're not unduly and improperly suppressing the right to vote for those who should and can vote and who wish to do so. So on that basis this bill will be considered by the Justice Committee—the select committee process is very important—but as I say many members of the public have already had their say on this; they've put in submissions which is one of the reasons why I'll be moving at the appropriate stage for a truncated process for the select committee but on that note I commend this bill to the House.