Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) | Hansard source

To continue the remarks of Senator Canavan, it is disappointing. I've similarly stood on plenty of polling booths where groups of one organisation have a belief in their candidate or in one sort of thing. The unions believe, for better or worse, that the ALP better represents them, so they come out and stand on their booths. There is nothing wrong with that. I would prefer they didn't—I'd like to stay at home and have a beer and watch the footy—but they come out because that represents their belief. If a church or a group of people come out because a different party represents their belief and values, that is a good thing. I stood on a booth where people from the same organisation preferred a different candidate than the coalition candidate, and they handed out for that candidate—not ours—because they preferred that candidate. That is their right. I might have been annoyed at that and preferred they stay home, but they did not. If we go down the path of prosecuting people for standing behind their beliefs, what has this country become? If people have to be mute, remain silent and sit on their hands rather than strive for the country they want, strive for the values they want and strive for the government they want, that is wrong. If I tell the union movement they should no longer be allowed to come out and hand out on ballot papers, that is wrong. GetUp annoy me because they don't run candidates but they're happy to go to polling booths and hand out material, but if I tell them they can't do that, that is wrong.

We should be careful about including only those people that agree with us in the democratic process, because that isn't a democratic process; that is the first step towards dictatorship. Using a report—using a process—to go after people of belief or people with values, whether you agree with them or not, is the wrong thing to do. That is censorship. It is horrific, and I don't want to see it. I also see members from the other place who highlighted the effect of this group behind another community group. The Brethren out in the seat of Calare ran and funded their own rapid response team given the lack of emergency services. It was called the Rapid Relief Team. The local member there, Mr Andrew Gee, highlighted and praised their activities in saving people during the Eugowra floods and put on his social media how it was great to see people come together for their community. He thought it was a good thing when that same group of people, being community focused, were doing a good thing for the community, but as soon as one handed a 'how to vote' card out for someone other than him, they were 'bad people'. That is wrong. Let us not go down the path of choosing who can participate in democracy. Let's not go down the path of saying people are good when they do things you want and bad when they don't.