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Speaker 1: Government revisiting prisoners voting rights under the last government that

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Speaker 1: changed the law, of course, to allow those in jail

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Speaker 1: for less than three years to vote. Current government intends

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Speaker 1: to flip that. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has well, that's

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Speaker 1: very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Morning.

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Speaker 1: Well the urban myth that labor liked that because the

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Speaker 1: crooks vote for them and they don't vote for you,

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Speaker 1: is that real or not?

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Speaker 2: Do you reckon? Ah? No, I mean the numbers are

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Speaker 2: very small in terms of the overall vote, so it

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Speaker 2: doesn't change the outcome of elections. But what it is

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Speaker 2: about sending a clear signal there being a member of

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Speaker 2: society's about rights and responsibilities. If you breach those responsibilities

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Speaker 2: to the extent that you're sent to prison, you know,

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Speaker 2: we think you lose the right to vote temporarily until

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Speaker 2: you get out.

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Speaker 1: What about the counter argument, which says, at the lesser

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Speaker 1: end of the prison spectrum, you're going to go back

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Speaker 1: into society, you feel a part of something, you don't

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Speaker 1: want to lose too many contacts, et cetera. Is there

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Speaker 1: something in that or not?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I don't think so. I mean, voting's not about

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Speaker 2: losing contact with society. It is a civil sort of

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Speaker 2: right and an opportunity. I think it's about sending a

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Speaker 2: clear message that if you breach those responsibilities, you should

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Speaker 2: lose the right to vote. Now, that's what it was,

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Speaker 2: you know, back in twenty twenty, at the height of

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Speaker 2: Desindra Dun's soft on crime approach, they took it that

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Speaker 2: they reversed our our ban and we don't agree with that,

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Speaker 2: and so we're going to put it back right.

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Speaker 1: What's the timeframe we've.

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Speaker 2: Got at once every three years is a piece of

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Speaker 2: legislation dealing with electoral matters and we're going to be

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Speaker 2: introducing ours in the next couple of months and so

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Speaker 2: it'll be passed before the next election.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Paul Goldsmith won't be retrospective too, by the way,

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Speaker 1: Paul Goldsmith the Justice Minister.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.