Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will ensure that he is not heard in silence! This bill restores the seven-day enrolment period after the issuing of election writs. This bill also repeals the onerous proof of identity requirements that Howard introduced for provisional voters. As I said, if these voters could not produce a driver’s licence or some photo ID or other evidence on polling day, the elector had five business days to return to the AEC office with proof of identity. It is no wonder that 25 per cent of voters were unable to produce evidence of identity on polling day, and subsequently 27,000 votes were rejected. They were the people who turned up but who had not actually been following the machinations in Parliament House and did not realise that they needed photo ID.

This bill removes the identity provision, but to ensure the integrity of the system it requires the division returning officer to check a voter’s signature against the most recent record whenever there is any doubt about its validity. Australians just want to take part in the democratic process and do not want to have to jump through the hoops to do so.

This bill also brings the enrolment process into the 21st century. While most public institutions are riding the digital wave of the modern era, the electoral roll is back in the horse-and-buggy era. Paper enrolment forms are still required to be signed and sent to the AEC. This bill amends the process, enabling enrolled voters to update their enrolment details electronically. It streamlines the process and, obviously, lowers costs as well. It allows flexibility in how and where enrolments are processed, and where possible enables the counting of prepoll votes cast in an elector’s home division as ordinary votes on election night. That is obviously good news for the psephologists out there, like Antony Green or Malcolm Mackerras, and the election night junkies—many of us are those, and actually like watching results. So it would be good to have that spread of results around the country on election night.

Finally, this bill restricts the number of candidates that can be endorsed by a political party in each division. This amendment is in response to the Bradfield by-election where 22 candidates ran including nine candidates nominated by the Christian Democratic Party. It is ironic that their title should result in this amendment. This is obviously a very confusing situation for electors to face on their ballot paper. This bill closes the loophole and ensures political parties can endorse only one candidate in each electorate.

All these measures are about simplifying the enrolment and voting processes and ensuring that as many Australians as possible are eligible to vote. The quick passage of this bill will ensure that these reforms are in place before a 2010 or 2011—whatever the Prime Minister decides—federal election. I have always been keen for a Kevin 11 campaign, but I am not getting a lot of support. The bill restores democracy to the House and I commend it.

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