Greens want vote for inmates
The Green Party is calling on the Government to give voting rights to prisoners but has not won approval from its coalition partners.
Currently, no prisoners can register to vote – or vote – a position the New Zealand Supreme Court has found is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act.
That situation is the result of a 2010 National Party members’ bill but some variety of prisoners have long been stopped from voting. Between 1993 and 2010 only prisoners sentenced to more than a three-year sentence and those in preventive detention were stopped from voting.
The Green Party is likely to face an uphill battle within the coalition to win support, as NZ First is known to be against it.
Green Party justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman timed yesterday’s call to coincide with the first time women voted.
‘‘Today is 125 years since New Zealand women first went to the polls, yet to this day there are New Zealanders still denied from casting their vote,’’ Ghahraman said. She argued that taking the right to vote away from prisoners excluded them from properly engaging in society, which in itself harmed rehabilitation.
‘‘We know that prisoners being disengaged from their communities is an impediment to them being rehabilitated and reintegrating effectively once they are released, which should be the key focus of a system of justice,’’ Ghahraman said.
She believed all prisoners should be able to vote – not just those with short sentences.
‘‘We have the Crimes Act and the Sentencing Act that go to their offending. We are already punishing them proportionately to what they have done.
‘‘Our Supreme Court very rarely says that legislation is inconsistent with fundamental rights and they’ve come out and said that very clearly. We know we are breaching the Bill of Rights Act.’’
She also noted that prisoners were disproportionately Ma¯ori and poor.
Ghahraman is asking Justice Minister Andrew Little to prioritise the change but legislation would be needed, so NZ First would need to get onboard.
The party has not ruled out attempting the change as a member’s bill.
Little has told reporters he personally disagrees with the ban on voting but it was ‘‘not a priority’’ for the Government.
‘‘We haven’t even had a discussion about that and it would be wrong for me to express any view on behalf of the Government about it,’’ Little said in October.
While the Supreme Court has ruled the law is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights, New Zealand’s system of parliamentary supremacy means no actual law change has been forced.
Whether prisoners vote or not is unlikely to have an effect on any election, with about 11,000 on the prison muster.