Richard Francois: Human rights lawyer celebrates reverse of prisoner voting ban

A battler for prisoner voting rights says it was inevitable the government would reverse the law. The Government is reversing the ban, which was brought in by National in 2010. It means those serving sentences of less than three years will be able to vote - before next year's General Election. The decision comes after a ruling from both the Supreme Court the ban breached the bill of rights. Human rights lawyer Richard Francois has been working with Arthur Taylor end the ban, since 2013. He told the Weekend Collective it's a very satisfying result. "It really was inevitable that the Government of the day, having faced a Supreme Court judgement, would go and revert that to the 2010 position." National leader Simon Bridges says he will reintroduce the bank if he gets into government, but Francois says it might not be that simple. He says he has a case before the UN at the moment which he believes will go in prisoners' favour. "In which case there would be quite a damning statement to any other political party that's got an idea of reverting back." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.