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Te Rarawa leader Haami Piripi says draft recommendations put forward by the Independent Electoral Review Panel are bold and forward-looking.
The recommendations developed after 58 public meetings and more than 17-hundred submissions include:
– allowing all sentenced prisoners to vote;
– limiting political donations from individuals to $30,000 over a political cycle – and only by registered voters;
– and requiring the Electoral Commission to give effect to the Treaty.
Mr Piripi says he’s particularly in favour of the call to lower the voting age to 16 – because in the new digital world, teenagers are more informed than previous generations.
“The old experiential learning game now is outdated. You can pick the same thing up now in half an hour on the (internet). It’s a whole new environment, and I know in my own personal life there’s plenty of 16-year-olds that are much faster and snappier than pensioners, and to be honest a less bigoted point of view,” he says.
The panel is holding a second consultation round before preparing its final report for the Government before December.
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