The Government has announced that voting rights will be restored to prisoners, however the Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges believes this decision shows that the Government is putting criminals before victims.

'This soft on crime Government is more focused on giving rights back to criminals than protecting victims,” says Simon.

Justice Minister Andrew Little has announced that people sentenced to less than three years in prison will have their voting rights restored.

'This will return the law to how it was pre-2010 when a National Party Bill removed voting rights from all sentenced prisoners,” says Andrew.

'We plan to make this change in an Electoral Amendment Bill before the next election, so that people sentenced to less than three years imprisonment can participate in the 2020 election.”

Simon believes this is softening the stance that the Government should have on crime.

'By giving voting rights to criminals they're giving them back the voice they have taken away from others,” says Simon.

'Only days after Corrections announced they are now calling prisoners ‘men in our care' or ‘clients', it's obvious this Government's priorities lie with prisoners instead of their victims.

'Prisoners who have received sentences of up to three years aren't petty criminals. They're people who have committed serious assaults, robberies, family violence and sexual offences.”

Andrew Little says the decision by the Government to restore voting rights to prisoners follows a report from the Waitangi Tribunal that the 2010 law disproportionally impacts Maori prisoners and is inconsistent with the Treaty of Waitangi. He says it also follows the High Court's declaration - upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court - that the current law is inconsistent with the right to vote in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

'This threshold of a three-year jail sentence means those prisoners will be able to vote on the Government that will be in power when they are released,” says Andrew.

The 3700 prisoners in remand already have the right to vote. This law change will affect around 1900 people in prison.

'It is right that someone who is going to be released back into the community during a Parliamentary term should have the right to have a say on who leads them during their time of freedom,” says Andrew.

The law change will also address the concern that prisoners are not re-enrolling once they leave prison. The Waitangi Tribunal noted this means the law is effectively acting as a permanent ban on voting for prisoners. To address this, the law will also be changed so that longer-term prisoners will be enrolled on release.

'This will ensure people sentenced to three years or more in prison can re-engage with the democratic process as easily as possible,” says Andrew.

'National is the Party of law and order, we will change this back should we earn the right to govern in 2020,” says Simon.

'If you do the crime, then you deserve to lose your voting rights and do the time.”