Headline: Govt response to election inquiry inadequate
The biggest concern of the last election was low voter turnout and online enrolment would be a very positive step to address this concern
The Green Party is challenging the Government’s response to the inquiry into the 2011 General Election, released today, which provides virtually no information on what the Government’s response actually is.
“Justice Minister Judith Collins’ official response to the select committee inquiry into the last election is inadequate,” said Green Party electoral reform spokesperson Holly Walker.
“The Minister has had the select committee’s report for three months now but is still stalling for time.
“It is very unclear what recommendations the Government will implement and which they will ignore.
“The response states that the Government will now ‘carefully consider the policy implications of these remaining recommendations to determine whether change should be implemented’ – if they haven’t been doing that over the last three months, then what have they been doing?
“The Minister has said that a bill will be introduced shortly to implement some of the recommendations, but has given no detail as to which of the committee’s recommendations will be included in the bill.
“She is also cutting it very fine to pass legislation in time for the 2014 General Election, given the convention that you don’t change the rules governing elections during an election year.”
Ms Walker said it was vital that the Government did not delay the introduction of full online enrolment, as recommended by the select committee.
“The biggest concern of the last election was low voter turnout, especially among young people, and online enrolment would be a very positive step to address this concern,” said Ms Walker.
“An online option would make it much simpler to enrol, which would in turn help increase voter turnout.
“There was great cooperation between the members of the select committee and it’s vital that the Minister doesn’t waste this opportunity to make a real difference to voter engagement.
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