Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it is quite large, as the member says. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that that huge figure at the last election may have been due to some other aberration. But, if we look at the elections between 1996 and 2004, we see that that is not the case, because between 1996 and 2004 it never reached above 91,000. With this bill, the government is moving to introduce a number of measures to overcome the way in which the previous government sought to deny people participation in our political system and sought to put barriers in the way of people.

The member for Bradfield referred to comments by US President Ronald Reagan—in the way of trusting the verifiers—and the member for Bennelong queried the reason that we would refer to US parallels. Quite frankly, US parallels in this debate are quite reasonable—because what the party opposite are about is driving down participation in this country to the lowest possible levels.

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