Mitchell MarkELECTORAL (REGISTRATION OF SENTENCED PRISONERS) AMENDMENT BILLInstruction to Justice CommitteeDebate resumed from 18 March.Hon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): I'll stand to take a call on this bill. Again I think that we find ourselves in extraordinary times. I'm actually embarrassed that I'm even standing in the House speaking to this bill a bill about giving prisoners the right to have the vote back or more accurately prisoners that are sentenced to less than three years who will be coming out in that electoral cycle. In all honestly if the Government really believed in this if you actually really believed in the fact that you feel like there's a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act or if you really believed in the report that came out from the Waitangi Tribunal then why aren't you giving prisoners the vote back full stop? Why don't you just give them the vote? If the Minister of Justice stood up in the House and he said We're going to address the issue around the breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. We're going to address the issue that was raised by the Waitangi Tribunal."; you're not addressing those issues. If you're going to do it why don't you just give prisoners the vote back? Sadly I think it is political and that they realised that that was going be deeply unpopular with the public of New Zealand. I think that it goes against everyone's sense of justice.Hon Nathan Guy: What does New Zealand First think?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Darroch Ball will not believe in this legislation make no mistake about that. It's inherently against everything that he's—look I have to acknowledge him because I've worked with him on some very good strong law and order legislation over the last two parliaments. This is inherently something that he does not believe in and it's against—Hon Nathan Guy: Is he voting for it?Hon MARK MITCHELL: He's voting for it.Hon Nathan Guy: Well how does that work?Hon MARK MITCHELL: They've done a deal. For whatever reason New Zealand First is supporting this bill. He made a speech yesterday that suddenly changed and I said "Oh this is going straight to the pool room." To be honest with you he didn't really address the issue. So we'll look forward to—I see we've got Mark Patterson in the House. Hon Nathan Guy: Well what does he think?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well I'd say that he's probably in exactly the same position. He inherently does not believe in or support this bill—like most Kiwis don't because most Kiwis accept the fact that when someone has offended so badly against our community; when someone has broken the laws that we put in place that they will adhere to that they will respect; when someone's offending has been so serious that there are victims and there is often serious violence involved and recidivist offending they end up in a New Zealand jail.It's hard to go to prison in New Zealand. That's a good thing. I actually think that the threshold should be quite high in terms of going to prison and going to jail. But the reality of it is if they offend that badly and they're in jail—they find themselves in prison—inherently they should lose some rights. Kiwis feel that "Yes the vote is a right." We have lots of rights. We have the right to freedom of movement—that's taken away from a prisoner when they go to jail. Hon Chris Hipkins: It's not a general debate.Hon MARK MITCHELL: They lose some rights like—well Mr Hipkins said that it's not a general debate but if you choose Mr Hipkins to put a bill like this into this Parliament at a time when we're trying to deal with something like coronavirus—Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. This is a debate on a referral motion; it is not a debate on the bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Thank you. I appreciate your guidance and support. As was mentioned many times in the debate yesterday your contribution must be about the instruction to the committee not about the bill. Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): My pleasure.Hon MARK MITCHELL: You're absolutely right and the Leader of the House raised a very valid point. I'd ask him or someone to stand up—in fact I'd ask the Leader of the House to stand up take a call and tell us why you are going to force on this Parliament a shortened select committee process. What is the need for that? Why at a time in our country when we're facing some major issues can't you bring a bill—I would accept the fact if you put a bill to this House to deliver Penlink a critically important piece of infrastructure in my electorate and you said "You know what we need to do a shortened select committee process because we need to deliver this critical piece of infrastructure keep people working and actually try to catch up." when we've got a huge deficit now because you're being far too slow to act on infrastructure in this country. I'd welcome that. I'd accept that. But why are we debating in this House a shortened select committee process on a bill that gives prisoners the right to vote? I'd welcome the Leader of the House to stand up and take a call and explain to us why we are subverting and shortening a process. There is no logical reason. There is no logical reason why the Minister of Justice and the Leader of the House would ask this Parliament to engage in a shortened select committee process. I remember when they were in Opposition. I remember when we passed the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill in response to an external threat. I remember them standing up and challenging that hard saying "Why would we go for a shortened process? Why would we go for a reduced select committee process?" Well the answer to that was pretty clear. It was national security. We had a major national security threat. We had to respond to it and we did respond to it. And actually I want to acknowledge the Labour Party because at that stage they had guys like David Shearer who worked with me on that bill. He was outstanding. But I'm sorry Mr Hipkins you cannot come to this House with a straight face and look us in the eye and look the country in the eye and give us any explanation or any reason why we would be engaging as a Parliament in a shortened select committee process to give prisoners the vote back. What is the strategy? What is the reason? We haven't heard one. I doubt very much Mr Ball will take a call on this bill and want to stand up. In fact I'd be surprised if anyone from the Government does want to stand up and explain to us why you wanted to shorten the select committee process but I'd welcome it if you did. We think it's perverse and we think that it's especially perverse at this time in our history when we're facing the types of challenges that we are facing. We should be coming together as a Parliament. We should be working together. We're committed to do that but bring some serious legislation into this House that will actually make a tangible difference to Kiwis' lives when they need it most: right now in terms of what we're facing and what we're dealing with. Thank you very much Madam Speaker."