Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) | Link to this | Hansard source

To make it clear, Labor supports this package of bills. I'll come to each of the bills in a moment, but first I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that the explanatory memorandum states that the bill's intention is to strengthen the integrity of Australia's electoral system;

(2) further notes that Australia's electoral system would be further strengthened by;

(a) lowering the disclosure threshold from the current $14,500 to a fixed $1,000 so political donations are transparent for all to see;

(b) requiring real time disclosure of political donations;

(c) providing more resources to the AEC to increase enrolment and turnout;

(d) addressing the spread of dangerous misinformation and disinformation;

(e) legislating for a powerful and independent National Anti- Corruption Commission;

(f) making laws to prevent governments from pork-barrelling in marginal held seats; and

(g) requiring parliamentarians to disclose secret donations; and

(3) calls on the Government to implement these electoral integrity measures which would make a real difference to improving public confidence in our democracy".

As I said, Labor supports this package of bills. The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Foreign Influences and Offences) Bill 2022 closes a loophole to ensure that foreign entities cannot incur electoral expenditure for the purposes of federal elections.

In 2018, the parliament legislated to ban participants in federal elections from receiving political donations from foreign sources, and let's be clear about this: it was Labor that fought for a ban on foreign donations. This government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to that position. Indeed, you can say that generally of just about every electoral reform that has happened in this country for decades. It is always Labor that is calling for improvements to our electoral system. It is always Labor that is calling for improvements to our donations system, and, regrettably, the Liberal and National parties have to be dragged kicking and screaming to come to even modest reforms. It was Labor from opposition that secured amendments to the legislation to ensure that foreign donations were banned but that charities and civil advocacy groups were not unfairly impacted and could still participate in our democracy.

This bill makes a useful adjustment to the laws passed in 2018. It will close a loophole that allows a foreign entity itself to incur electoral expenditure and communicate electoral matter. Currently, regrettably, it is not prohibited for a foreign government, company or individual to campaign for a candidate or on an issue at a federal election. This is clearly at odds with the ban on foreign donations and must be corrected, and that's what this first bill does. This bill's provisions prevent a foreign entity from incurring electoral expenditure of greater than $1,000 or fundraising for that purpose, further protecting our democracy from foreign interference.

In addition to banning foreign entities from incurring electoral expenditure, this bill also bans them from authorising electoral material. Penalties and anti-avoidance provisions similar to the existing provisions in relation to the ban on foreign donations apply. The provisions in this bill ensure that only people or entities with a link to Australia can participate in our elections, and that, of course, is an entirely appropriate provision. Australian elections are for Australian citizens and we need to take every step we can think of to ensure that only people and entities who have proper links to Australia can participate.

Labor have always believed that we should do everything we can to avoid foreign influence in our elections, so, of course, we support closing any loopholes. But we understand that this government will always seek to play politics with these issues, and we've seen that as recently as this past weekend. This is a government that acts only it's in its own electoral interests. The Prime Minister has shown that he's willing to throw mud and mistruths, because he thinks running a scare campaign will help him win the next election.

Over the years, there have been a number of issues on all sides where attempts have been made by foreign actors to undermine our democracy. We've seen that foreign interference is a feature of other democracies around the world. We must be vigilant in protecting Australia's democracy and ensure that we maintain the faith of the Australian people. Labor is committed to ensuring that the integrity of our elections, the integrity of our parliament and the integrity of our democratic institutions are protected. As a parliament, we must act with unity on this issue.

I hope that we will see no more of the pathetic attempts that have been made in recent weeks by the defence minister and, regrettably, by the Prime Minister to try to politicise matters of national security. That should form no part of the political debate in our country. It should form no part of political debate in this House. We must not have ministers, let alone senior ministers, seeking to politicise national security information—seeking to make innuendos and insinuations based on national security information that they are forbidden from revealing publicly but implying that there is something about the classified information that comes to them that allows them to make the kinds of partisan slurs that we've seen in recent weeks from the Prime Minister, the defence minister and, regrettably, from other ministers. We hope that we see no more of that kind of behaviour that we've seen the last few weeks. Indeed, I would urge the government to make sure of it.

To return to the bills, Labor will always examine every piece of legislation to make sure that it is in the national interest. We believe that the provisions in this bill—the first bill in the package—will help protect our electoral system and democratic institutions from foreign interference. We've seen that, in addition to the foreign influences provisions, the bill also increases the penalty for publishing material that is misleading in relation to the casting of a vote. We've witnessed the harmful effects of former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine faith in the integrity of the US electoral system—persistently sowing the seeds of doubt and mistrust and, appallingly, inciting violence in a scheme to discredit the election of the president most recently held in the United States of America. Let's hope that no Australian politician sees it as being to their advantage or is so prepared to act in such a shameful fashion in relation to our electoral system, and I say that because Australia's electoral system is one of the best in the world.

The Australian Electoral Commission is proudly independent, and it ensures, of course, that the integrity of elections is its priority. By increasing the penalty for the existing offence of misleading or deceiving someone in relation to the casting of a vote from six months to three years, the Australian Federal Police will be given increased power to investigate this offence. That's because account takeover warrants and data disruption warrants—which are some of the powers that Labor has worked with the government to create in recent years to add to the armoury of powers that is available to the Australian Federal Police and which are quite serious powers—can only be sought by the Australian Federal Police for crimes which carry a penalty of at least three years imprisonment. So the effect of increasing the penalties from six months to three years for these particular offences of misleading or deceiving someone in relation to the casting of a vote will mean that those more serious and sweeping powers will be available to the AFP in relation to these electoral offences. We would say that increasing the penalty will, thus, greatly assist the Australian Federal Police in investigating any breaches of the current provisions in the upcoming election.

I will turn now to the second bill—the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Authorisations) Bill 2022—which makes a minor amendment to the law relating to the authorisation of electoral matter. Electoral matter or material that is communicated for the purposes of influencing how someone votes in an election must be authorised, so that voters know who is communicating that material. The framework for authorisation of electoral communications is contained in the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the referendum act, the Broadcasting Services Act, the ABC Act, the SBS Act and some related determinations. This bill will align the authorisation requirements across all of those acts in an effort to achieve consistency.

Currently, the Electoral Act requires political parties to include in the authorisation particulars the name of the party as written in their most recent election return provided to the Australian Electoral Commission. This bill changes that to make clear that the name of the party in the authorisation must be the name that is registered in the AEC's register of political parties. The bill thus will allow political parties to use a shortened version of their registered name in certain circumstances. Extraneous words may be omitted, such as 'branch' or 'division' or 'incorporated'. Replicating abbreviations or the name of the state or territory can be omitted from the authorisation. In addition, if the name includes the words 'of Australia' or has 'Australia' at the end of the name, those words may also be omitted from the authorisation line.

In the Senate, Labor successfully amended this bill—that is, the second of the bills in the package, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Authorisations) Bill 2022—to allow the use of a party's registered abbreviation. This will simplify the authorisation line while still allowing the purpose of the authorisation revisions to be achieved. That purpose is, of course, to identify the political party that is communicating the material. To sum this up, it's an abbreviating authorisation, but, nevertheless, absolutely preserving the purpose of the authorisation provision so that, when people see electoral material being communicated in whatever form, they know where that material comes from, because the political party will have to be sufficiently identified in the authorisation.

It is of course the case that many political parties are commonly known by their registered abbreviation, including my great party, the ALP, or another party in this parliament, the Greens, and every political party's registered name and abbreviation is available for public viewing on the register of political parties on the AEC's website. So there isn't, in fact, going to be room for doubt. But the sense of it will mean that a full, elaborate, formal title is not required to be used; rather, what we're aiming to achieve is clear identification of who authorised the electoral matter that is being communicated.

The changes in this bill will apply to all forms of electoral matter but will be particularly useful where the authorisation is spoken, such as in video messages or TV commercials. TV commercials are expensive. Time in video messages and TV commercials is expensive. It will mean that more broadcast time can be used for the message itself while still maintaining that purpose, which is allowing voters to easily identify the authorising party.

Finally, I'll come to the Electoral Legislation Amendment (COVID Enfranchisement) Bill 2022, the purpose of which is to allow COVID affected Australians to vote at the upcoming election. It is regrettably the fact that we remain in a global pandemic. It is regrettably a feature of the global pandemic with which all Australians have become only too familiar—that another outbreak may yet come to us. We all fervently hope that this current omicron outbreak is the last outbreak of this virus, but the experience over the last two terrible years has shown us that that may not be the case.

To that end, it's entirely appropriate that provision be made for the possibility that there will be COVID affected Australians at the time of the upcoming election. It's assuring the rights of those COVID affected Australians to vote that these provisions are directed to. That is brought about by extending existing provisions for secure telephone voting for Antarctic voters and secure telephone voting for those who are blind or vision impaired to COVID affected electors. It will only be available to voters who are in mandatory isolation or quarantine during the last 72 hours of the election campaign and who are therefore unable to attend a polling place or apply for a postal vote. It'll simply mean that, if you are in that unfortunate position, where you haven't voted at prepoll and haven't voted by means of a postal vote and in the last 72 hours of the election campaign because you were perhaps intending to attend prepoll or to vote on election day and you find yourself regrettably COVID affected, there will now be a means available for you to vote.

Voters will need to have tested positive for COVID-19, using a TGA approved test, or be a close contact of a COVID-positive person or have otherwise been directed to self-isolate or quarantine. The provisions in this bill will only be used if the Electoral Commissioner makes a determination on reasonable grounds that they are necessary or conducive for the conduct of the election. What we would envisage occurring is that the Electoral Commissioner will take health advice as indeed government officials, agencies and ministers both at the federal level and at the state level have taken the advice of our health experts throughout the pandemic—or, at least, that's what should have occurred. That will occur, too, for the Electoral Commissioner, who will determine whether the circumstances of the current state of the pandemic at the time that the election is held are such that this determination is needed. Before making such a determination, the Electoral Commissioner will be required by this legislation to notify both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and the determination will have to be published on the AEC's website.

There will be telephone voting for COVID affected electors. It will be available from 6.01 pm on the Wednesday before polling day—that is, after the cut-off for a postal vote application—until the close of the polls on election day. It's entirely consistent with more than 100 years of reform of our electoral system, one could say throughout the whole of Federation. I happen to think that the introduction of compulsory voting in early 1920s marked a tremendous improvement in our voting system, something that has become ingrained in political practice of Australians, ingrained in the way in which Australians think about our electoral system in our political system. Voting is a right and also a duty. Everybody is required to both register and vote.

What goes with having both compulsory registration and compulsory voting requirements, which only a minority of other democratic countries in the world share as a system—it's a substantial number but still a minority of democratic countries that have compulsory registration and compulsory voting—is the need to make voting as easy and available to all Australians as it can possibly be made. This kind of provision, making it possible for COVID affected voters to nevertheless cast their votes even if they've missed out on prepoll or a postal vote and won't be able to attend because of quarantine requirements or isolation requirements on voting day, means they will still be given, by this legislation, the possibility of a means by which they can cast their votes. The bill contains a sunset clause. The provisions will automatically expire on 31 December 2022. These provisions are a sensible solution to allow those who are isolating to exercise their democratic right.

I do note that the government of South Australia, the Marshall government, does seem to be confused about how it should be dealing with this issue. It is a very simple fix, but the South Australian Premier, Steven Marshall, refuses to recall parliament to ensure that everyone will have a chance to vote in that state 's upcoming election. It's amazing that, amongst all the chaos and division that's come to be the hallmark of this government, the federal government can see sense in moving this particular provision and extending access even for those who are COVID affected on election day.

Labor has always fought for the enfranchisement of every citizen of this country. We fought for and achieved two guaranteed seats in the House of Representatives for the Northern Territory when this government wanted it to be reduced to just one. We fought against discriminatory voter ID laws that would have seen some of the most marginalised people in Australia stripped of their democratic rights and seen queues around the block at polling places. We have agitated for a restoration of the AEC's Darwin office; ridiculously, this government removed the AEC office in Darwin, pretending wrongly that the services of the AEC could be provided to the whole of the Northern Territory—that vast area of our country—from the Brisbane office of the AEC. It is vital that every eligible Australian has the opportunity to vote at this election. No-one should be disenfranchised as a result of this government's failures in managing this pandemic. This bill is a sensible solution to ensure that that doesn't happen.

Voters have woken up to this Prime Minister. They know that only a Labor government will restore integrity to our parliament. There is so much more we could be doing to improve the integrity of our electoral system. It's to that end that I moved a second reading amendment to this bill at the start of this speech. As you would have heard, Deputy Speaker Goodenough, it's a second reading amendment that refers to a number of other measures we should be moving towards, such as lowering the disclosure threshold from the current $14,500 to a fixed $1,000 so that political donations are transparent for all to see. We should be moving to real-time disclosure of political donations. We should be providing more resources to the AEC to increase enrolment and turnout.

On the first couple of those—lowering the disclosure threshold from the current $14,500 to a fixed $1,000 so that political donations are transparent for all to see and requiring real-time disclosure of political donations: we are still enduring the ridiculous position created by the Howard government when it introduced $10,000 as the threshold for electoral disclosure and indexed it, which has produced the current, even more ridiculous situation where the threshold for disclosure is $14,500. Labor has been agitating for years and years and years for that $14,500 threshold, which is continuing to rise, to be lowered to $1,000 and to be fixed so that people know that if they donate more than $1,000 it is definitely going to be disclosed.

The other reform that we have again been calling for many years but the Liberal and National parties remain obdurately opposed to is real-time disclosure, which has now been achieved in Queensland at the state level. It has been a tremendous benefit to the integrity of electoral processes and of political parties themselves in that state, because it's possible to see not 18 months after the donation is made—which is the time period you can in fact have under the current federal system; that's how long it can take for a public disclosure to be made. It doesn't need to be 18 months if you're making the donation somewhat closer to the disclosure date, but it could be up to 18 months between the making of the donation and the time at which it is disclosed. The whole point of requiring disclosure is that voters will be aware of who is giving large amounts of money to the political parties they are being asked to vote for.

Finally, I mention these other matters that I mentioned in the second reading amendment. We need to do more to give more resources to the AEC and we should be legislating for a powerful and independent national anticorruption commission—something this government has admitted today in estimates it is not going to do. Labor will. Labor is committed to creating a national anticorruption commission.

Debate interrupted.