Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak briefly on the Electoral and Referendum Legislation Amendment Bill 2006. This bill is the second set of measures put before this chamber which seeks to make changes to the electoral system. The first set of measures introduced were regressive measures that limited the franchise by closing electoral rolls early, making it harder to enrol and raising the financial disclosure limit from $1,500 to $10,000, linked to the CPI. Increasingly, there is the capacity for donations to be made in secret—provisions rammed through parliament for base partisan political gain. This government was intent on and, I believe, accomplished its aim of making it harder to vote and easier to donate.

This bill, however—the Electoral and Referendum Legislation Amendment Bill 2006—introduces provisions which the Labor Party supports. The provisions in the bill arise from the government’s response to the report by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on the conduct of the 2004 federal election.

The bill was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration for inquiry and report by 20 February 2007. The committee received three submissions: from the Australian Electoral Commission, basically on the way the provisions will be implemented and operate; from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission; and from the Department of Defence.

The bill, according to the explanatory memorandum, seeks to do six things. The first is introduce a limited form of electronic voting which will provide for a trial of electronically assisted voting for sight-impaired people and provide for a trial of remote electronic voting for Australian Defence Force members and Defence civilians serving outside Australia. The second is to make changes to the general postal voter registry. Specifically, it will enable members of the ADF and Australian Federal Police personnel serving outside Australia, and persons registered as eligible overseas electors, to apply for registration as general postal voters. The third is to make various changes to postal votes—specifically, to provide that the deadline for postal vote applications is 6 pm on the Thursday prior to polling day, to amend arrangements for the delivery of postal voting material by the AEC and to expand the range of AEC officers who can receive completed postal vote envelopes. The fourth is to change pre-poll arrangements by amending the requirements for the establishment of pre-poll voting centres to enable them to be quickly established by the AEC in exceptional circumstances. The fifth is to make changes to enrolments from outside Australia by amending provisions relating to enrolments from outside Australia to allow applicants the option of providing an Australian passport number rather than a current drivers licence number. The sixth is to repeal section 350 of the Electoral Act which relates to defamation of electoral candidates.

The submissions received were supportive of the provisions of the bill. The committee’s recommendation was that the Senate pass the bill.

I would like to touch on a number of elements of the bill in greater detail. Firstly, I would like to address the issue of electronic voting. In terms of electronic voting, the HREOC submission urged that:

… the Committee support the passage of the Bill; and support an extension of provision for electronic or electronically assisted voting at the earliest opportunity to include other people unable because of disability to complete a paper ballot independently and secretly.

The Committee took the view that:

… electronic assisted voting should be extended to electors requiring this facility to enable them to exercise the right to a secret ballot, provided trialling of this system proves to be successful.

The AEC outlined the operation of the proposed trials as follows:

The trial for sight-impaired people will require the AEC to develop an electronically assisted voting method that will produce a printed record of each vote cast.

… the electronically assisted voting method is expected to be available at up to 30 locations around Australia. These locations will utilise pre-poll voting centres so that sight-impaired electors would have an extended opportunity to avail themselves of the electronically assisted voting method if they so choose. A sight-impaired elector will be able to cast an electronically assisted vote in the lead up to polling day or on polling day itself.

The trial for particular defence personnel serving outside Australia will require the AEC to develop a remote electronic voting method for that purpose. In order to make use of the remote electronic voting method, eligible ADF members and defence civilians would first be required to be registered with the AEC as Remote Electronic Voters. The AEC will be required by the Bill to produce a printed record of each electronic vote received by the AEC.

I look forward with interest to the results of the electronic voting trials. Any reforms that seek to enable voters to exercise their democratic right to vote in secret and to extend the franchise should be supported, and it is hoped that the trials are successful and can be rolled out extensively so that electronically assisted voting may include other people unable to complete a paper ballot in secret because of disability.

The proposals that I have outlined regarding changes to the general postal voting registry allow ADF and AFP personnel overseas to enrol to become general postal voters, which simply means that they will automatically be sent ballot papers without first having to request them—a straightforward and sensible amendment. The various changes made with regard to postal voting seek to change the postal vote deadline from the Friday before election day to the Thursday before election day, allowing the AEC more time to ensure that ballot papers reach electors in time for them to complete the papers on or before polling day. The Australian Electoral Commission will not be required to post or deliver postal voting material to those electors whose postal vote applications are received after that time. However, the AEC will be required to make reasonable efforts to contact applicants whose postal vote applications are received after the deadline to advise them of the need to vote by other means.

The amendments also seek to expand the range of AEC officers who can receive postal votes. The range will include electoral visitors at hospitals and prisons, mobile polling team leaders and office holders, and ongoing employees of the AEC. This expansion will provide voters more options and flexibility for returning postal votes.

These amendments are worth while and very welcome. As I said earlier, the trialling of electronic voting is indeed a very exciting initiative. However, this government took a very different position on the first round of measures introduced through the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2006, debated in the Senate in June 2006. These changes were widely condemned by the Labor Party, community leaders and independent experts—and rightly so. Those changes, for the first time in Australian electoral history, wound back the franchise and attempted to hide from the public who is donating to political parties. By raising the financial disclosure threshold, you hide the dollars, and transparency is lost. You lose the essential checks and balances on the activities of political parties. It is a shameful measure that has been introduced to fill the coffers of the Liberal and National parties and hide the origin of the donations from public view.

Following the 2005-06 disclosure declarations by political parties, on 2 February 2007 the Herald Sun reported:

Overall direct political donations of $74 million for 2005-06 were well down on the $160 million that flooded the coffers of the major parties in the 2004-05 election year.

Well down—a difference of $86 million.

The closure of the rolls sooner after the writs is of great concern. It potentially disenfranchises voters and there is little benefit to be derived from making these changes other than, as I have said, for base political advantage. These changes were introduced despite the potential that existed for them to cause considerable damage to our democracy. We should remind ourselves that, whilst the provisions in this bill are supported and welcomed by the Labor Party, they by no means right the unfairness introduced by the provisions in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2006. I support the bill before the Senate.