Senate debates
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Committees
Electoral Matters Committee; Reference
9:31 am
Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source
by leave—I move:
- (1)
- That the following matters be referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for inquiry and report:
- (a)
- the circumstances surrounding the impersonation of Family First polling booth workers and the distribution of misleading voting information at polling booths in the recent South Australian state election;
- (b)
- the extent to which this was a calculated activity designed to mislead voters into directing their preferences in a different direction from that of the official Family First voting information;
- (c)
- whether comparable activity would be considered to be legal under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, including the implications flowing from the decisions in Bray v Walsh (1976), Evans v Crichton-Browne (1981), Webster v Deahm (1993) and Re Carroll v Electoral Commission of Queensland (1998);
- (d)
- what changes would be required to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 so as to prevent a political party (or others) engaging in such misleading and deceptive conduct at future federal elections;
- (e)
- the allegations that a single family illegally lodged more than 150 votes on polling day through impersonation of other voters; and
- (f)
- the allegations that a large number of votes remained uncollected from hospital facilities because of errors on the part of polling officials.
- (2)
- That in conducting the review the committee calls for public submissions and undertakes hearings in relevant capital cities.
No comments