Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to Senate voting reform, we have a choice: do we back voters deciding on their preferences or do we allow group voting tickets to continue and the backroom deals to flourish, with the likes of Senator Sam Dastyari out there doing these backroom deals and trying to wield and retain power? Do you back democracy or do you back manipulation? That is what is before us now.

Let us remember that we are actually talking about democracy here. Senate voting reform is in the context of how we enhance our democracy, who represents us and how we are governed. We need to ensure our electoral system cannot be manipulated. These reforms are coming before parliament because, in recent years, we have seen levels of manipulation increase. People have become aware of how they can 'rort' or 'game' the system—whatever word you want to use. Voting has become a lottery. I agree with the idea of diversity. All my colleagues in the Greens are very proud that we sit on a rich crossbench. That is part of how this Senate operates, and I hope there always is a strong crossbench, but, as we have seen attacks from the Labor Party suggesting that this will hand power to the Liberal Party, the Labor Party need to look into the mirror at themselves. If they think it will end up handing power to the Liberal Party, it means that they are not doing their job. Why aren't they out there winning more votes and standing up for what matters to people? Why are they doing the wrong thing by refugee rights? Why do they have a weak foreign affairs policy? Why are they failing to clean up political donations? There are issues around national security—so much of this has to do with Labor's failings here.

Coming back to the issue before us, it is worth remembering that Senator Dastyari spoke about the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters report. The JSCEM report was important. It was where the parties came together. The submission from Labor set out their position very clearly. Labor's submission said:

Senators who … rely principally on preference arrangements to get elected do not reflect genuine voter intention and need to be addressed.

There we had the Labor Party submission supporting reform. We had Labor, the Liberals, the Nationals, the Greens and Senator Xenophon signing off on very clear recommendations. At the time, Bill Shorten was the Leader of the Opposition. He is still the Leader of the Opposition, but now Labor are not on board. We should have unity on electoral reform, but we do not. The Leader of the Opposition is failing to give that incredibly vital leadership that is needed on these sorts of issues. We are seeing weak leadership. It is resulting in people like Senator Conroy and Senator Dastyari leading Labor into oblivion on this issue. They are locking themselves into a position of supporting backroom deals.

There is no question about it: there is a problem with the Senate voting system at the moment. The voter goes in to vote on election day and can only cast one vote, in one box, above the line. By far the majority of people have no idea where their preferences end up because backroom deals have already worked that out. Labor have said they will vote against the bill. They are still back in the last century, when that was how they operated. They urgently need to change their own image, their own principles and their own way of working, but here they are illustrating to the public how bankrupt they are, even when it comes to such an important thing as voting reform.

They are also going against the advice of their former Special Minister of State, Gary Gray, who worked on JSCEM, worked on this issue and gave very solid advice. The committee was consistent, where all parties, having worked through many issues, came to the same conclusion. Mr Gray commented that Senate voting reform:

… is as important to Labor as one-vote-one-value and it is as important as the franchise.

That says it so clearly, but here we have Senator Conroy and Senator Dastyari leading Labor down a path of embarrassment and oblivion instead of standing up for what is right. Mr Gray also spoke about how these measures uphold the integrity of section 7 of the Constitution.

With regard to the actual plan as it will be set out in the legislation, it has gone another stage from JSCEM, but the essence is still the same. What JSCEM recommended is that it should be the voters who determine their preferences. Under the proposed legislation, voters will be able to do that. They can determine their own preferences if they vote above or below the line. If they vote above the line, they will be required to number at least six squares. This is where, again, Labor and, unfortunately, some of the minor parties are being highly inaccurate in how they are representing this. By requiring at least six boxes to be allocated, preferences will be distributed. Many of the parties are already negotiating preferences. The difference will be that this will not be done in backroom deals; it will be a recommendation to the voter. It will be on the how-to-vote cards given out on election day and on our websites et cetera. But, again, the decision rests with voters.

I feel very strongly about this issue because I saw how damaging these rorters were in the 1999 New South Wales election, when there were 264 candidates for 81 parties. At that time, the Outdoor Recreation Party, with only one-fifth of one per cent of primary votes, won a seat. They won the same number of seats as the Democrats. But the Democrats at the time had about 20 times as many votes as they did. So, again, when you look into the detail here, how can anybody say that this is democratic? That experience in New South Wales has very much informed how the Greens have taken this forward at a federal level. I spoke many times to former Greens senator and leader Bob Brown about this very issue. He realised that the reforms we achieved in New South Wales could bring benefits to Senate voting reform federally. He introduced a bill in 2004 and again in 2008. He and former senator Christine Milne spoke on this issue many times. These reforms are urgently needed, and the merits of Senate voting reform are really very clear. This issue has been muddied by misinformation, but it is something that we need to address, and address urgently.

I want to return to the idea—which many on the Labor side are sprouting and thereby misinforming many in the social movement—that the Liberals will control the Senate forever and a day. Ben Raue, a psephologist who runs a website called The Tally Room, said, 'It’s a brave call to assume the coalition could pull its entire two-party-preferred vote in a Senate race.' Seats can be taken from the conservatives. Again I remind Labor: look at yourselves. Look at what you stand for. When you are saying that the conservatives are going to control this Senate for the rest of time, what you are saying is that you are giving up. You are satisfied with the weak policies that you are taking out on the environment, on climate change, on people's rights. Every election we have a different result. When we become candidates, it is up to us as public representatives to work with our members and our supporters to represent what we stand for. If the Labor people have the courage of their convictions to stand up for what matters, there is no reason the conservatives should ever control this place. I have found the scare tactics on this issue deeply appalling.

I think we need to remind ourselves what is going on here with the way in which a few factional operators have gained their power. Let us be very frank about this. Senator Dastyari and Senator Conroy have driven this issue within Labor. As I have indicated, the Labor Party submission to the JSCEM was supportive of these reforms, and the committee's recommendations had total backing from Labor, including from the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, who was also leader at the time. There was solid support. Then it started to be derailed. Senator Dastyari and Senator Conroy, through their political careers, have gained so much of their power by doing backroom deals.