James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, that's actually evidence under parliamentary privilege. What an accusation to make! And it has been sitting there for four years, undisputed. No-one has rebutted that, and that was an eyewitness testimony from Mrs Bess Price to the Electoral Matters Committee in September 2020.

Regrettably, we've had other comment publicly in recent times regarding the intimidation of Indigenous voters around community consultation as well—around decisions in Alice Springs. Certainly, comment has been made about the way in which the process of community consultation is influenced and impacted through that sort of intimidation. I absolutely welcome improving and increasing Indigenous enrolment and, at the same time, also making sure that every element of Indigenous participation in our democracy is something that we respect and protect. Evidence of intimidation of voters anywhere, and particularly in Indigenous communities, is something that we need to look at closely and consider: who is doing this? How do we find the actors that are seeking to influence the democratic right of people to cast a secret ballot for the person they actually want to vote for, rather than being intimidated into voting for someone that they're told to vote for? That evidence is very regrettable, and the success in Indigenous enrolment presents us now with a good opportunity to also address this concerning evidence and the claims of the intimidation and influence of people seeking to participate our democracy.

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