Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments in relation to the Greens' position on the government amendments. As we said earlier this week, we will be supporting this bill. We support modernising the conduct of referenda and, in particular, we want the Voice referendum to succeed.

In relation to the government amendments which have been moved together: we're comfortable with the most recent amendment, which clarifies that the civics campaign will not be a de facto 'yes' or 'no' campaign but will be a neutral campaign. So we're happy to support QE100. But we note that there's a real need for truth in political advertising law and that, in fact, that should also have been addressed in this bill. There will be some amendments by our crossbench colleagues in relation to the drafting of the pamphlet, which we'll support, but the Greens' position remains that we want truth in political advertising laws, which we have advocated for for decades now and which we'll continue to pursue that through various other means.

We strongly support the extension of remote mobile polling from 12 to 19 days. Too many voters in the 2022 election, particularly those in remote areas, were effectively disenfranchised because the remote mobile-polling services didn't actually make it to their communities. Bad weather, large distances, mechanical issues and limited resources meant that some remote communities were only visited for a few hours by those remote-polling units and that some missed out altogether. We heard about poor communications, meaning that people didn't know when the polling station would be in town. It's clear that we need to do better, and I welcome this amendment to extend the remote-polling period from 12 to 19 days as an important step.

I note that in the recent JSCEM hearing, the AEC responded to some questions from me by confirming it was aiming to attend 100 remote areas during the referendum polling on the basis of the extension that the government has proposed. But I also want to note that it will be critical to make sure that referendum material is available in language and that interpreters are available at polling places for the duration of their time in the community. We need to facilitate people in remote areas participating actively in our democracy, and having the information they need to do that. This referendum is the perfect place to start that.

Amendment PX150 prevents the indexation of the disclosure threshold; that's uncontroversial, so we support that. But we note that we have an amendment, which I'll move shortly, to lower the disclosure threshold to $1,000. People have a right to know who is funding what, not just in elections but also in referenda. Whilst we support the decision not to allow indexation to occur, we think that $15,200 is too high a threshold. People actually want to know that information, and they deserve to know it. I note that Senator David Pocock has an amendment to one of the amendments the government has moved, the effect of which would be to extend the media blackout to include social media. I'm flagging that even though it hasn't been moved—although I imagine that's imminent—the Greens will support it. And I'll have quite a lot more to say when it comes to our amendments, because this is a crucial opportunity to enfranchise as many people as possible.

This is an important referendum; it has been a long time since we've had one, and these are weighty decisions. We should be maximising the participation of people in having their voice heard. It's somewhat ironic that the amendments the Greens will move to allow on-the-day enrolment will not, I believe, be supported by the government or the opposition. I say 'ironic', because we are having a referendum about having the Voice and yet they won't allow people to have a voice about having a voice by having this insurance policy of allowing on-the-day enrolment. I will speak about that when the time comes but I would urge others in the chamber to reconsider their opposition to that, because we can't wait. Voting is a right, it's not a privilege, and we should maximise participation by allowing on-the-day enrolment.