Harawira Hone: Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Huri rauna kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. This bill the Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill to remove the right of anyone in jail to vote is a direct attack on the democratic freedoms of people we should be trying to help. It is an assault on the intelligence of ordinary New Zealanders. It is another in a raft of misbegotten panicked pieces of legislation that are driving this country over the precipice into the mindless depths of right-wing insanity. 
Even the Law Society did not like the bill for heaven’s sake! It opposes the bill on the basis that it contravenes the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Law Society called it retrograde legislation that would erode the free and democratic nature of New Zealand society without justification. The Law Society called the bill irrational and arbitrary. It said that the bill was unreasonably impairing the right to vote that it was out of due proportion to the objective of punishment and that it was out of line with international law. 
The Human Rights Commission said the bill would “impact disproportionately on Maori … and therefore may amount to indirect discrimination which could not be defended as reasonable.” The commission also said the bill was inconsistent with the aim of the penal system to rehabilitate offenders. 
Those basic human rights come from a long history which goes back to the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852 which actually disenfranchised prisoners back then for “any treason felony or infamous offence within any part of Her Majesty’s dominions”. That history also includes a declaration from the 1975 Electoral Act Committee which said “there was no justification for taking away an elector’s political rights if detained in a penal institution.” Three years later in 1978 New Zealand ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That was followed by a statement made by the Centre for Human Rights which said “excessive limitations on the voting rights of convicted criminals are not permissible.” In 1992 the Solicitor-General said that the removal of voting rights for more prisoners was a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and that imposing limits on that right was unjustified. 
Now in 2010 we find that our current Attorney-General the Hon Chris Finlayson has attached a note to this bill to alert Parliament to his view that this bill will strip individuals of a fundamental right in a way that cannot be justified in a free and democratic society. He is a colleague of Mr Paul Quinn. 
Everyone knows that Maori make up 50 percent of an already overstretched prison population; a gross overrepresentation in sentencing incarceration and recidivism rates that are a damning indictment on our society and on our justice system in particular. This bill will make that even worse by further isolating and segregating prisoners from society and adding another punishment to the one already handed down by the judge. 
One of the submissions received by the Law and Order Committee was from a woman who reported on a recent ruling in the United States Court of Appeals. It stated that the removal of a prisoner’s right to vote was a breach of the Voting Rights Act and that it discriminated disproportionately against ethnic minorities that are overrepresented in the prison population. She also said that this proposed bill would contravene the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act in respect of both the right to vote and freedom from discrimination. I pick up on a comment made by Labour members because I think I might have the same example. That woman provided a local example where two young men were convicted of the same offence. One was from Fendalton—or depending on where he lived “Fendolton”—and the other one was from Aranui. To no one’s great surprise the one from Fendalton got home detention and the one from Aranui who was convicted on the same offence was sent to jail. 
By way of context this bill says that people who get home detention can vote but those who get jail cannot vote. Fendalton of course is one of the wealthiest suburbs in Christchurch with a Polynesian population of just 3 percent. Aranui is one of Christchurch’s not-so-wealthy suburbs with a Polynesian population of 40 percent. So there you go! When they get convicted of the same offence poor brown people go to jail and rich white folks do not. Now thanks to this bill poor brown criminals will lose their right to vote whereas rich white criminals will not. 
Finally I draw on a review from the Ministry of Justice last year that confirmed bias against ethnic minority and indigenous peoples at every stage of the criminal justice system from stop and search to arrest charging prosecution mode of trial conviction pre-sentence reports sentencing incarceration and parole. That review found that over 40 years of international research had failed to provide a successful blueprint for addressing ethnic disparities. It also found that a comprehensive policy approach was needed to address the direct and underlying causes of ethnic minority and indigenous offending. This bill will achieve absolutely none of that. 
Every intelligent commentator every human rights ruling every valid piece of research and every anecdotal piece of information we have to hand both local and international tell me that this bill is not only bad legislation it is dumb legislation. It will disenfranchise Maori voters it will do nothing whatsoever to protect the citizenry of this nation and the Maori Party will be opposing it at every single stage. Kia ora tatou.