House debates

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Electoral and Referendum Amendment (How-to-Vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill 2010

Consideration in Detail

Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.

12:34 pm

Photo of Andrew RobbAndrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) and (2) as circulated:

(1)    Schedule 1, page 5, line 13, omit “10 penalty units”, substitute “50 penalty units”.

(2)    Schedule 1, page 5, line 30, omit “10 penalty units”, substitute “50 penalty units”.

The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (How-to-Vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill 2010 will be supported by the coalition but we ask the government to consider what we believe to be an important overall amendment that we have just put before the House. It is notable that this bill arises because of a deliberate scam by the ALP in the recent South Australian state election yet if you look at the bill you find, despite all of the huffing and puffing that has gone on and the distancing of the government from the deliberate attempt to defraud the state election, that this bill has a punishment which does not match the crime.

You will recall, Mr Deputy Speaker Slipper, that the how-to-vote cards that were handed out appeared to be official Family First how-to-vote cards but the preferencing order favoured the ALP candidates. It is true that there were two or three seats which hung on the outcome of this fraud that took place. In many respects the South Australian state Labor Party government is illegitimate, because it won an election on the back of a fraudulent activity. This is at the heart of this bill. It is the reason for this bill. Those on the other side, who said they were horrified and disgusted by this move, have put forward a bill with a punishment, if this action is taken again, of $1,100. There are many Labor operatives who would gladly put $1,100 on the table to ensure the victory of a local ALP candidate through false preferencing arrangements. There needs to be a penalty of 50 or 100 units rather than the one that is proposed.

The amendment that we have put forward asks for a penalty of 50 units or $5,500 for anyone involved in any action which seeks to defraud an election. If the Labor Party were genuinely concerned about the actions that were taken and if they were true to all the rhetoric that has gone on since that humiliating and disgraceful activity undertaken by the Labor Party, then they would support this amendment. I ask the House in toto to support this amendment.

12:37 pm

Photo of Anthony AlbaneseAnthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting these amendments in the House of Representatives. We are happy to consider such a technical amendment—which I assume will be moved in the Senate and also considered there—in the Senate. But the difference between the amounts suggested by the honourable member for Goldstein and those in the bill are of no great significance. What is clear from the member for Goldstein’s comments is the bitterness that is there because of the return of the Rann Labor government in South Australia. The South Australian Labor government was returned with significant support across the board in marginal electorates in South Australia, and I look forward to working constructively with my colleagues in the South Australian Labor government.

The problem that the tories have is that they have a born-to-rule mentality: they do not accept the views of the majority of the people. The majority of people in South Australia returned Labor to government and did it in a majority of seats in the legislative assembly. The Liberals talked themselves up prior to that election, as they always do, because they think that they only have to get up in the morning to be able to sit on the government benches. They have not come to terms with the fact that they are in opposition here and they have not come to terms with the fact that they were defeated yet again in South Australia as well as in Tasmania on the same day.

12:39 pm

Photo of Andrew RobbAndrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | | Hansard source

That contribution from the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government needs a response. This election was won by cheating. The South Australian Labor Party cheated. That the minister can stand and defend that action is incomprehensible. This is a government that is illegitimate and it is seeking now to represent the South Australian people. This bill which the Labor Party is sponsoring goes to the heart of clearly fraudulent activity that led to the winning of seats. The government is illegitimate, it is a product of cheating and surely the Labor Party cannot with a straight face defend this in any sense. We will take up the offer to look at increasing the size of that penalty even more when we discuss this in the Senate.

Question put:

That the amendments (Mr Robb’s) be agreed to.

Bill agreed to.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I remind the Minister for Finance and Deregulation that to read newspapers in the chamber is disorderly, regardless of whether it is the Herald Sun or not.