seek a declaration that s 80(1)(d) is inconsistent with the right to vote contained in s 12(a) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. [79] The respondents’ statement of claim sought a declaration that the 2010 Amendment Act was inconsistent with the right to vote under s 12(a) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. It did not challenge the pre-existing disqualification for those prisoners serving sentences of more than three years under s 80(1)(d) as enacted in 1993. [80] In his statement of defence, the Attorney-General did not plead to the claims of breach of s 12(a) (on the basis that they were assertions of law) but denied that the prisoner applicants were entitled to any relief. In addition, the Attorney-General took the position that the High Court lacked jurisdiction to make an order declaring an Act of Parliament to be “inconsistent” with a provision of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and, in any event, ought to decline to make any such order in the present case. [81] As already indicated, the Attorney-General accepts that the 2010 Amendment Act is inconsistent with the right to vote contained in s 12(a) by which “[e]very New Zealand citizen who is of or over the age of 18 years” has the right to vote in elections of members of the House of Representatives. Nor does the Attorney-General seek to argue that the blanket ban on prisoner voting is a limitation on the right to vote which is justifiable in a free and democratic society under s 5 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. [82] In this position, the Attorney-General holds to the view first expressed in his report on the Bill to the House of Representatives under s 7 of the Act. The report acknowledged that the disqualification appeared to be inconsistent with s 12(a). And it indicated that, because the proposed legislation was “both under and over inclusive”, with “irrational effects” (which depended entirely on the date of sentencing), the effect of the Bill was “disproportionate to its objective” and could not be justified under s 5.96 96 Christopher Finlayson Report of the Attorney-General under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 on the Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill (17 March 2010) at [14]–[16].