Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table the explanatory memorandum and to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Senate voting, by proportional representation, was agreed by Parliament in 1949. At a full Senate election, twelve Senators are elected from each of the six states and two from each of the territories: a total of 76. At a usual half-Senate election, each state elects six Senators and the territories two: a total of 40.

This bill covers both full and half Senate elections and aims to improve the democratic outcome of all elections.

Above-the-line voting for the Senate was introduced in 1984 to address the problem of increasing informal votes. While this was an easier alternative for voters, the cost has been that the decision on preferences was removed from the voter and given to the party which the voter first selects.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act requires each party or group contesting elections to provide the Australian Electoral Commission with a paper indicating how preferences will flow if a voter chooses that party or group by voting for it above the line.

This bill removes that requirement from the party or group and returns to the voter the sole obligation to allocate preferences. The voter is advantaged because she or he decides the flow of preferences and directly chooses who is next elected if her or his vote is not used, in full, to elect the party or group of first choice.

There would no longer be competition, inducement or cross-dealing by parties or groups over preferences, nor public uproar about preference ‘deals’.

These amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act enhance democracy. They provide voters full control of the destiny of their vote and consequently, the make-up of the Senate.

I commend the bill to the Senate

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.