Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill 2010 contains five schedules which will, firstly, restore the close of rolls period to seven days after the issue of the writ for an election; secondly, repeal the requirement for provisional voters to provide evidence of identity before their votes are admitted to scrutiny; thirdly, enable prepoll votes cast in the electors’ home divisions to be cast and counted as ordinary votes wherever practicable; fourthly, allow the Australian Electoral Commission to process enrolment transactions outside the division in which the person is enrolling and enable electors to update their enrolment details electronically; and, finally, restrict the number of candidates that can be endorsed by a political party in each division.

Schedule 1 deals with amendments relating to the close of rolls. The amendments in this bill that relate to the closing of rolls seven days after the writs are issued will be opposed by the coalition. The previous government, in line with longstanding policy, moved to protect the integrity of the roll and prevent fraudulent enrolments by reducing the time period between the calling of an election and the closing of rolls. The closure of the rolls seven days after the issue of a writ is a significant threat to the integrity of the electoral roll. The coalition considers that the existing arrangements ensure that the electoral roll contains a high degree of accuracy and integrity, and we are concerned that the extra time period allows for a return to a system which permits calculated fraudulent enrolments to take place.

The coalition believes a return to the previous system of seven days will serve to discourage citizens from making or maintaining their enrolment during the ordinary course of the year, as they will have the opportunity to delay such action until an election is called. It also increases the opportunity for selective fraudulent enrolment. This policy was reaffirmed by the coalition senators’ minority report in the June 2009 Report on the conduct of the 2007 federal election and matters related thereto of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. This minority report was of course ignored by the government in this legislation. The government is seeking to open a loophole whereby people are able to enrol fraudulently in electorates to provide political advantage to a particular candidate or political party. I will talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

Schedule 2 amendments relate to evidence of identity for provisional votes. The amendments relating to the evidence for provisional votes will also be opposed by the coalition. The previous government, in line with longstanding policy, moved to prevent fraudulent voting by people impersonating other voters. The previous government did this by requiring that people who claim a provisional vote in an election be required to produce evidence of their true identity and their enrolled address either on polling day or in the week following polling day. This was an important protection against fraudulent voting, something I will touch on again in a moment. People who live at a location for 21 days are, by law, required to enrol at that address. If they do not do so, they are breaking the law. It s true that they may not be aware of any changes to boundaries, which could affect which electorate they reside in; however, they are aware of the fact that they have changed address.

Effectively, the changes proposed by the government mean there is no consequence for breaching the Electoral Act. The benefits of correctly enrolling are reduced to nothing and there is no disincentive for any person who fails to correctly enrol, leading to a situation where the whole basis for the AEC’s Continuous Roll Update program is severely undermined. Any proposal to weaken the rules related to proof of identity for provisional votes should be opposed, because they may encourage people to ignore the necessity of maintaining a correct enrolment and because the proposed amendment makes fraudulent voting easier. This policy was also reaffirmed in the coalition senators’ minority report which I referred to a little bit earlier.

Schedule 3 contains amendments relating to prepoll voting. The coalition will support the amendments relating to prepoll voting. At the current time there is a significant and unnecessary administrative burden on the AEC for processing prepoll votes cast within the elector’s own division. At the current time, these votes are treated as declaration votes and must go through an administrative checking procedure in the weeks following polling day. The government’s proposal seeks to treat these votes as ordinary votes; although, electors who wish to cast them will still be required to fill out and sign a declaration asserting the elector’s need to cast such a vote. The net effect of this proposal has no ill consequences for either the integrity or the role of polling day practices. This is because the elector’s name will be immediately crossed off the roll on polling day, and notification of who has cast prepoll votes is circulated to each polling booth. In many ways this system actually has more integrity than the issuance of provisional votes on polling day. An additional benefit will be that these prepoll votes will now be able to be counted on the night, leading to an earlier, more accurate result of the vote. This is especially useful, given that prepoll levels are usually quite a significant percentage of the total vote.

The amendments in schedule 4 concerning the processing of enrolments will also be supported by the coalition. This is an administrative amendment which allows the AEC to transfer workload relating to the processing of enrolments between different divisional returning officers. There are strong efficiency arguments to be made in allowing DROs to farm out work to other officers, particularly during high levels of demand or sickness of staff, or if staff leave requirements leave a DRO short-staffed for a period and they are unable to manage the unexpected workload. This schedule also allows for people who are already on the roll to update their details electronically—and this is a welcome development. There is no provision for new enrolments to be lodged electronically. People who wish to use electronic update will have to provide confirming details such as a drivers licence, passport or citizenship number, which already form the basis of identity checks used by the AEC.

Amendments relating to nomination of candidates are in schedule 5. The amendment relating to the restriction on the number of nomination of candidates by a party will be supported by the coalition. At the Bradfield by-election in 2010, the Christian Democratic Party endorsed nine candidates to contest the seat. That was a political mistake and not just a procedural flaw. It is understood that this was a deliberate tactic to try to drive up the informal vote amongst those voters with poor English and numeracy skills. Previous AEC research has demonstrated that the more candidates there are in an electoral contest the greater the likelihood of informality. This is especially the case in electorates with a high non-English speaking background population. Further analysis indicated that most of the informality related to a failure to correctly number all boxes on the ballot paper.

So we have taken a very reasonable approach in opposing the first two initiatives and accepting and supporting the last three initiatives. It reminds me of the fact that you cannot always trust the Labor Party when it comes to electoral reform. There is a history of a number of people in this place in relation to electoral matters and alleged electoral rorts. Quite obviously, the recent appointment by Senator Conroy of Mike Kaiser to a $450,000 unadvertised, uncontested job reminded me of Mr Kaiser’s engagement in electoral fraud in Queensland. The Canberra Times reported on 11 January 2001:

In the Shepherdson inquiry yesterday, Mr Kaiser admitted his signature appeared on a fraudulent enrolment form.

It goes on to say that he signed the form but claimed to have no memory of doing so. It also said:

A third Queensland Labor back-bencher fell on his sword yesterday after admitting to electoral fraud …

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