Face of the Day

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says Cabinet has agreed to reinstate a total ban on prisoners voting in general elections, dismissing a ruling from the High Court and recommendations from the Electoral Commission and Waitangi Tribunal.

Under the previous Labour government, prisoners serving less than three years were allowed to vote.

The justification given by then-Justice Minister Andrew Little was that prisoners serving sentences that short would be back in the community before the following election and “must have a right to have a say on those running the country that they are about to be released free into”.

Goldsmith said allowing prisoners to vote was “typical of the previous government’s soft-on-crime approach”.

“We don’t agree with the previous government’s reinstation [sic] of prisoner voting for prisoners for less than three years – we thought that was typical of their rather soft-on-crime approach, and we’re going to reinstate a total ban on sentenced prisoners voting,” he told Morning Report on Wednesday.

“Fundamentally, you know, if you want to be part of a modern society there are responsibilities as well as rights and, you know, if you breach those responsibilities to the extent that you’re sentenced to prison, then temporarily you’d lose some rights – including that to vote.”

RNZ