Christopher Luxon defends voting changes after Judith Collins raises problems

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said people need to get organised for elections. Photo / Mark Papalii, RNZ

By RNZ

The Prime Minister says the public still has plenty of time to get enrolled to vote despite scrapping same-day enrolment for elections.

Last week, the Government announced legislation to overhaul electoral laws it said had become “unsustainable”.

The Government agreed to close enrolment before advance voting begins, with people needing to enrol or update their details by midnight on the Sunday before advance voting starts on the Monday morning (in other words, 13 days before election day).

The legislation sets a requirement of 12 days advance voting at each election, and the changes would mean special vote processing could get under way sooner.

On Monday morning, Newsroom reported Attorney-General Judith Collins had said the proposed law changes clashed with constitutional rights in a report.

She indicated 100,000 or more people could be directly or indirectly disenfranchised by rules banning enrolment in the final 13 days before an election.

Collins declined an interview with Morning Report on the issue.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Morning Report that Collins had a statutory responsibility to review legislation to make sure it was consistent with the bill of rights.

“As a government, we think enrolment should happen before early voting starts,” he said.

Luxon pointed to Australia as an example of a country that does not allow enrolment on the same day as voting.

“We want everyone to participate but it’s just done two weeks before election day. It’s not uncommon, it gives people plenty of time to get enrolled and get sorted.

“All we’re saying is we want everybody to participate in our democracy... not an unreasonable request.”

On election day 2023, 110,000 people enrolled to vote or updated their details.

-RNZ