Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill. For those listening the House is sitting in extended hours on a bill which gives prisoners the right to vote. This is the priority for the Government coming out of a lockdown. Prisoners those who are locked up for what they have done—the fact that they have committed crimes against victims in our country—are having the right to vote given to them rushed through this Parliament as we head into the 2020 election. I don't try to be cynical but that's incredibly cynical of this Government to be spending the last few weeks of this Parliament in extended hours giving prisoners the right to vote. This Government has been in power for almost three long years. They've had three years to address this issue but here we are three months before an election giving prisoners the right to vote as they seek to get their coalition of voters together prior to this election. I'm proud to be on the National Party side of this argument and to be opposing this piece of legislation because we take a principled view that those who commit crimes in this country those who commit crimes worthy of being sentenced to prison lose a number of their rights. They lose their right to freedom of movement they lose their right to freedom of association and they also lose their right to vote and participate in the democracy whilst they are in prison. They commit their offences in full knowledge knowing that that is what will happen if they commit a crime. Ignorance is no excuse before the law. So I'm proud to be opposing this piece of legislation. The second point I'd like to make is how this Government not only is rushing it through before an election but whilst the country was in lockdown. Whilst New Zealanders were fighting COVID-19 a pandemic the like of which we have not seen for a hundred years and whilst New Zealanders' lives were being transformed—people were losing their jobs their livelihoods their businesses; losing everything that they had—the Government was ramming this bill through the Justice Committee. Most other parliamentary business was put on hold during COVID-19. Most other select committees put their business on hold. I sat on the Education and Workforce Committee and we had a number of pieces of legislation before that committee but it was non-urgent in the light of COVID-19 and we did not continue progressing that legislation. Chris Hipkins the Leader of the House said that Parliament would not continue to push ahead with non-urgent pieces of legislation so what was urgent about this? Did this have something to do with COVID-19? Did this have something to do with New Zealand's response to the pandemic and helping New Zealanders get through COVID-19 helping restore jobs in our economy or helping ensure that people had livelihoods to look forward to to protect people's futures? No. The only reason why this bill was pushed through during COVID-19 was for one simple reason and that was to ensure that it could pass prior to the election. That brings me back to the point of why has the Government not progressed this earlier. If this is such an important piece of legislation to be using Parliament's extended sitting hours to be pushing this through now in the lead-up to the election why did they not deal with this earlier? Why did they not sort this out sooner? Why did they not sort it out before the local government election last year? Or does it not matter because the Government's not up for re-election in local government elections? Maybe it only matters when Labour Party politicians' jobs are on the line. The next point—Hon Maggie Barry: So cynical. SIMEON BROWN: Yes I am a little bit cynical of the Government's intentions around this piece of legislation. Who couldn't be? I think most New Zealanders are because during lockdown submissions were open and during lockdown submissions closed. During lockdown the committee was hearing submissions. During lockdown this was the one priority the Justice Committee was continuing to progress through Parliament. Now I find it incredibly incredibly cynical that that was their number one priority. I want to echo the words of my colleague Dr Nick Smith who made the point of the number of constituent queries and the issues which were affecting his electorate. Not one person was coming to my office or calling me up emailing me or whatever else getting in touch—well they couldn't come to my office because we were in lockdown. But they weren't getting in touch saying Oh look I just hope Simeon that you're prioritising prisoners voting right now." Dan Bidois: How many queries did you get? SIMEON BROWN: Mr Bidois I got no queries—no queries during lockdown with people coming to my office and saying "Simeon I just hope the Justice Committee is focusing on making sure that sentenced prisoners are registered and are able to vote in the upcoming election." But that's what the Government was prioritising whilst New Zealanders were fighting for their livelihoods. I do also want to make the point that Nick Smith made around the number of convictions it takes to be sentenced to prison: an average of 24 convictions to go to prison—an average of 24 convictions. We're not talking here about people who went a little bit over the speed limit. We're not talking about people who may have committed some low-level offence. We're talking about people who committed a substantial number of offences and who have been sentenced to prison. The Sensible Sentencing Trust said in their submission that it was asserted when this debate began that it would not apply to prisoners who are incarcerated for serious and/or violent crime and it would only be applicable to those prisoners who've been sentenced to three years or less. They put to the committee a very important point. In the fiscal year 2018-19 prisoners sentenced to three years or less who would be now eligible under this bill—there were 6657 of which 1929 are in for serious violent crimes against the person. I just want to raise that point here because we're talking about people who've committed serious violent crimes. Under this bill not only do they get registered but they also get the opportunity to be put automatically on to the secret roll. They get additional privileges which the victims of those crimes don't get. Last year the Government statistics showed there's been a 9.6 percent increase in victimisations here in New Zealand. This bill does nothing to put those victims anywhere into this debate. The select committee heard from victims it heard from people who have had serious crimes put against them and they're shocked to see that those people who perpetrated those crimes are now going to be given additional rights during their time of imprisonment and will be given special privileges upon their registration. I find this bill to be something which this Government clearly has an agenda to support in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Issues around electoral law issues around registration to vote and issues around our constitution should be issues which are dealt with in a bipartisan way. They should be dealt with in a way which is done with reasonable periods of time so that full consideration can be given to the debate and full consideration can be given during the select committee period. They should be done at a time when people are able to fully engage in that debate because I dare say there are many many many victims of crime who were unable to submit because they were focused on their livelihoods on their jobs and on their businesses and would not have even been aware that this Parliament was ramming this bill through during the COVID19 pandemic. The National Party continues to oppose this bill and we'll continue to oppose it through the remaining stages here in the House."