Russell
Palmer Political reporter
*Correction:
This story has been updated to clarify the estimated number
of unenrolled voters
National’s leader Christopher
Luxon expects enrolment rates will be higher this year than
in previous elections, despite changes to enrolment
rules.
Labour is promising to reverse the changes to
enrolment.
People
can no longer enrol or change their details for this
election after enrolment
closed on Sunday, as a result of changes the coalition
made to end the ability for people to enrol and vote on the
same day.
As of Friday, 92.4 percent of people had
enrolled – short of the 94.7 percent in 2023, leaving about
300,000 eligible voters unenrolled.
The Electoral
Commission is expected to release the latest enrolment data
on Tuesday afternoon, and Luxon told Morning Report
he was not worried some people whose details may be
incorrect or who did not realise they were not enrolled may
be excluded.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
“People have had about a year since we
announced those decisions, they’ve had plenty of time to get
organised, it’s been a very easy process to do so.”
He
said it was no different to the approach taken in Australia,
the UK, Ireland and France.
“I think we’ve got pretty
comparable, probably we’ll end up with some higher,
enrolment levels than what we’ve had in recent elections as
well, so no, it’s been a very good process.
“I’ve seen
the provisional numbers, I think they’re going to have final
numbers out at the end of the week, but … already I think
higher than or around where we were in 2017, 2014.
Obviously, 2020 was a different election with respect to
Covid.”
The enrolment rates in 2014 and 2017 were 92.6
and 92.4.
Morning Report host John Campbell
pressed Luxon over whether he was worried about people not
being able to vote, given the former Attorney General Judith
Collins had warned that appeared inconsistent with the Bill
of Rights Act stating every over-18 New Zealander should
be able to vote.
“No, look … people have had plenty
of time … there’s been a huge promotion campaign from
Electoral Commission to get people enrolled. It’s been very
easy to do so.”
The rule change was partly aimed at
preventing increases to the time taken for the Electoral
Commission to formally count the vote.
Luxon said it
was “an overwhelming experience” for the Commission to
simultaneously encourage enrolment and voting, run voting
booths, and count the vote.
“I can understand that’s
why other countries have a have a gap between enrolment
before you actually do the voting and the count and the
running of the election, so I don’t think that’s
unreasonable. And I think when you look at our enrolment
numbers, they are good and healthy.”
Labour’s Tangi
Utikere, who was standing in for leader Chris Hipkins, said
the coalition had “done everything they can to make it
harder for people to vote”.
“What we are seeing is a
particularly anti-democratic approach from the National
government. We’ve indicated we will ditch those undemocratic
changes whilst in government.
“Many voters actually
will show up to a polling booth and they’ll realise that
perhaps they’re not able to vote and they’ll be more than
unhappy, I think they’ll be furious that they can’t do that
where they have done in the past. This is an extremely
undemocratic approach from National, and it’s something that
is completely wrong.”
He said people had still been
enrolling at 9pm on Sunday, just three hours before the
close of enrolment, and there had been queues at the voting
booth the next day.
Utikere was also questioned about
Hipkins’ plan for his first week as prime minister if
elected.
A social media post had listed lowering
transport bills, cutting student debt, cracking down on
unfair prices, making GP visits affordable, getting
hospitals more staff, and tackling the crisis in EDs as
week-one actions.
Asked if that was misleading – with
several of those unable to be achieved by the end of the
first week – Utikere said it was not.
“What it
actually does is it acknowledges and accepts that cost of
living and healthcare are key issues … they are five sets
of actions that would be taken by Chris Hipkins as Prime
Minister.
“If we’re looking at the the lower transport
bills, for example, you know that’s around ensuring that
there is an instruction to the transport minister to get the
public transport fare cap in place by July 2027. It is very
clear.”
He said in the first week there would be a
Cabinet meeting where the prime minister would set the
direction of travel, and the social media post was setting
out those
priorities.
New Zealand’s public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.
Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.
