Bill of Rights Act says voting rights for citizens only

David Cohen writes:

Right now, virtually anyone aged 18 or older can enrol if they have lived in New Zealand continuously for just 12 months and aren’t here on a visa requiring them to leave by a certain date.

So: a recent arrival, should they wish, gets a real say in who sits in Parliament or on the local council long before they are eligible to become a citizen. Even though the country asks five years of residence before citizenship, it’s apparently fine with only one year before voting.

This is bonkers.

It is bad policy.

Political pollster David Farrar makes the fairly obvious point that if people can vote without becoming citizens, some will understandably feel less urgency to take that critical final step.

I don’t want fewer people voting. I want more people becoming citizens.

It is worth noting what our own Bill of Rights Act says:

Every New Zealand citizen who is of or over the age of 18 years has the right to vote in genuine periodic elections of members of the House of Representatives, which elections shall be by equal suffrage and by secret ballot

Our own Bill of Rights Act says voting is a right that only citizens have. We may extend it to other groups, but the right falls with adult citizens.