Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate that I will support these amendments, but I do prefer the incremental approach taken by Senator Madigan in his amendments. I think that if we want to safeguard against, if not bogus groups, groups that may not be bona fide and may be there as a preference funnel for other groups then the best way of doing that in a way that is, I think, more democratic is to raise the threshold.

The threshold has been raised to 100 in the Senate. I think there is an argument to raise it even higher—to say, 500, the same as that for a political party—on the basis that those groups will then have the right to have their names above the line in a group of two or more, as is the case in the South Australian Legislative Council. That is an approach that could be looked at.

I am concerned that there is such a significant jump in fees. If we are worried about groups running that do not have the bona fides, if it is a community group that does not have much by way of funds, this will act as an impediment for it to run, but if it is a group that is backed by, hypothetically, Clive Palmer, I am sure he can fund many, many candidates if he were so minded. That means that we can still have a tablecloth-size ballot paper with people who are well resourced. With $50,000 they could still have 25 groups, which would make the ballot paper almost unwieldy. That is the sort of thing that we should be considering.

A greater safeguard against bogus groups—groups that lack genuine bona fides—would be to have a higher requirement for nomination. It may even go beyond the 100 that is being proposed. That is something that would have more merit. Also, we need to consider it in the context of the relative size of states. Getting, say, 100 signatures in New South Wales is a tiny proportion of voters compared to a much smaller state. It would still be a tiny proportion but in relative terms, if you are from one of the bigger states, you have a much bigger pool of people to go to in order to get those nominations quickly once an election has been called.