Embarrassing

Back in 2010, the National government passed Paul Quinn's Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Act. It was a petty, vicious bill which aimed to grub "tough on crime" votes by denying anyone in prison the right to vote. Except it didn't. As Graeme Edgeler points out, it in fact granted some of our worst criminals the right to vote, while denying it to burglars and petty thieves.

Whoops.

I don't support the bill, and regard it as a stain on our human rights record and a strong argument for Parliament's unfitness to be the ultimate judge of our human rights. The fact that it is fundamentally broken simply makes it worse. It should be repealed.