Political parties divided over electoral review interim recommendations

Politicians are divided over the ambitious suite of recommendations to reform the electoral system, which include expanding voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds and people in prison, and capping political donations.

The interim recommendations – which broadly fit within six themes and seek to make the system fairer for voters – are out for public consultation until July 17. The independent panel will give its final recommendations to the justice minister in November, after the election.

ACT Party leader David Seymour has called it a “grab bag” of Green Party policies, however panel chair, Deborah Hart, emphasised its independence.

“We are centred on the job we have been given to independently review our electoral system and we are not concerned at the politics, we are concerned at the principles, (fairness and encouraging participation)” she said.

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Green Party electoral reform spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman​ warned against politicising the issue and urged her colleagues to listen to the experts.

But Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he had no intention of pursuing lowering the voting age because the National and ACT won’t support it. This means a vote won’t hit the 75% threshold for a supermajority vote.

“I know many 16 and 17-year-olds who are highly engaged, highly informed, and I think they would make good, informed decisions about how they vote. On the other hand, I acknowledge that there’s not a supermajority for it in Parliament,” he said.

The panel also recommended a referendum on extending the parliamentary term to four years, and two changes to MMP: changing the party vote threshold to 3.5% and abolishing the one electorate seat threshold.

Hipkins said he was comfortable with the way MMP works now.

“In terms of declaring of donations, whether there should be further restrictions on who can donate, I’d want to see a bit more discussion across the parliament about this.”

Defence Minister Andrew Little said it was a good idea to take a four-year parliamentary term to referendum. “Three years is out of kilter with what goes on around the world.”

But there had to be “good reasons” to fail to expand the vote to young people, because the Supreme Court had already decided it was not a reasonable limitation.

“I think 16 and 17-year-olds have got a huge investment in the future. We should listen to what they’ve got very carefully and I think that they’ve got a voice to be heard.”

He also agreed with the recommendation to extend the right to vote to all prisoners, not just those serving less than three years in jail.

“I think the punishment for a criminal who goes to prison is being imprisoned – not having the democratic right taken away from them.”

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said he supported calls to extend to parliamentary term to four years, but electoral reform is not the issue people are concerned about ahead of October’s election.

Luxon didn’t support the majority of its interim recommendations, including extending the vote to all prisoners, letting 16 and 17-year-olds vote, or the changes to MMP.

“Across New Zealand people are doing it really tough and the focus needs to be on education, health crime. That is what New Zealander’s concerns really are.”

National’s police spokesman Mark Mitchell said he believed voting was a privilege, not a right.

“When you go to prison, you lose the right to have obviously your right to freedom and movement … and you lose your right to vote as well. I think me personally, some people argue that’s a right, I argue that’s a privilege.”

He didn’t think 16-year-olds should be given the right to vote either, because they are not treated as adults in the justice system.

Ghahraman said the Labour Government could return prisoner voting rights without support from National or ACT MPs, and there was no criminal justice reason to take away prisoner’s voting rights.

“If we start to say we can take away fundamental rights when people do to prison, where do we stop? It stops being about public safety and about the degradation of those who are in there,” she said.

“For all of our rights, the limitations our government is able to put is whether it’s proportionate in a free and democratic society.”

Capping political donations at $30,000 per election cycle and only allowing registered voters to donate were also moves the government could do.

“It’s too late for this election but it’s absolutely not too late for the government to pick this up for the next round.”

Seymour disagreed with all of the recommendations. “None of the recommendations solve a problem that New Zealand is face to day. It’s just a grab bag, frankly, of Green Party policies that won’t make anyone’s life better,” he said.

“We don’t see serious problems with the electoral rules. We see serious problems with policymaking with the way laws and regulations are made.”