Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

That is right. Thank you very much. Coming to another aspect of this bill—and this is the one that the previous speaker talked about to a great extent—I am pleased to see that this bill also addresses a concern arising from last year’s Bradfield by-election by limiting registered political parties to a single nominee per division. Those of us from Sydney, who know this very well, know that there was, shall we say, an oversupply of candidates at the Bradfield by-election both for preselection and for the actual by-election. As a matter of fact, one of the failed Liberal contenders in Bradfield has decided to chance his arm in Bennelong. I am not quite sure when he is moving into his second choice of Bennelong, but we await that move with some interest. If he does not hurry up, he may not even be able to vote for himself. Perhaps that is some incentive, actually, for Senator Abetz and his colleagues to pass this bill and give the Liberal candidate for Bennelong an extra week to move into the seat and start explaining why he opposes more than 700 local infrastructure projects, a question we all want answered. But I know I am digressing here.

The substantive change that the government seeks to enact through this bill will close a loophole that led to what was called the ‘bedsheet ballot’ that occurred at the Bradfield by-election. Again, the previous speaker, the member for Bradfield, has gone through this at some length. The deliberate confusion was caused by one party nominating nine separate candidates. It led to the highest informal vote ever recorded in the seat. That is a clear abuse of the process, and we certainly need to stop that from happening in the future.

I want to conclude my comments by commending the government members and the staff of the joint standing committee for their excellent work—in particular, again, the member for Banks, who has been in the chamber throughout much of this debate. The nagging question for me is how this opposition of spoilers, these deniers of democracy, will respond to this bill in the Senate. I have to say that, as we all know on this side of the House, their form is far from encouraging. The coalition parties have repeatedly blocked the government’s attempts to bring greater integrity to Australia’s electoral laws, failing to reform the political donations system, and it is a continuing point of shame that they have failed to do that. The opposition continues to hide behind procedural arguments rather than engage in debate on donations reform. The opposition says publicly that it supports campaign finance reform, but it chokes at the thought of greater transparency and accountability. The only consistent policy position the coalition appears to have is to oppose greater integrity in our electoral laws.

As others have noted, the commitment to reinstate the one-week period before the closure of rolls was a commitment that the Labor Party took to the last election. It was absolutely clear, and let me state that. Labor’s position is clear, fair and simple. We stand for ensuring that no unnecessary barriers are placed in the way of citizens who just want to exercise their basic democratic right to vote. As other government members have pointed out in the debate, the number of Australians not on the roll is staggering. We must do better, and passing this bill in full will help us do that. In conclusion, I urge the opposition to show respect for our democratic process and the voters of Australia and to pass this legislation. I commend the bill to the House.

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