Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it has been a long time since. And if you have sufficient evidence and you can get the conviction, then do it. The problem has been that, in effect, the Electoral Commission has to work off the act, which we the politicians design. So you can look at these things, in a number of other instances, in a bipartisan way, in a way in which we might create creative instances. What I like about the advisory report that we tabled earlier this afternoon is that we picked up the suggestion of the member for Mackellar, as well as another suggestion. We did not just sit back and say, 'Rubber stamp this bill' or 'No changes' or whatever. So, I commend her in relation to that.

Regarding the other matters we are talking about, there is an ideological divide. But, as for this obsession that the ATO should not provide any information, I just do not agree with her on that. And, as I just demonstrated, they provided in a number of other instances that the Australian Electoral Commission is going to be better served if they can access those records. I commend the bill to the House. I think it is a balanced bill. It will improve integrity on the roll.

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