It was sadly predictable that National's justice spokesman, Mark Mitchell, should react negatively to the Greens' proposal this week to give prison inmates the right to vote.
True to form, Mitchell opposed the idea - part of a "strengthening democracy" members' bill from Green MP Golriz Ghahraman - saying losing the right to vote was part of the punishment for criminals.
With 47 years as a journalist, I have spent a fair few hours in courtrooms and I have never yet heard a judge say: "I sentence you to X years in prison and I hereby remove you from the electoral roll and take away your right to be part of the democratic process."
No, losing the right to vote is not part of our sentencing protocols. It is a political decision, not a judicial one.
Forget the outcry from Maori that this state-sanctioned disenfranchisement is a "racist law". The removal of suffrage is an affront to every prisoner, regardless of ethnicity.