David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes—the Leader of the Opposition who, of course, was the member for Warringah back at the time. It does raise the question of who produced this material and what resources were used to produce that material. Those questions have not been answered. What we do know is that the pamphlet was produced and distributed by Liberal Party operatives in the Lindsay area. We do know by the Leader of the Opposition’s own admission that his electorate conference bankrolled the Lindsay campaign, but we do not know whether there is a connection between the two.

I think it is a legitimate question for me to ask on behalf of the residents in my community, who the Liberal Party treated with such contempt in relation to this issue at the last election. I think it is reasonable for me to come forward and to ask for the Leader of the Opposition to come forward and to disassociate himself and the funds that he and his electoral conference provided to the Lindsay campaign from those activities which I think that all fair and reasonable minded Australians would see as one of the lowest acts in our democratic history. I think it is important that we do have confirmation from the Leader of the Opposition on that point.

I wish to support the bill in all other respects. There is one other aspect of the bill that I would like to comment on very briefly, and that is in relation to the administrative provisions that would allow for those votes cast as pre-poll votes within the district for which those votes related to be allowed to be counted on the evening of the election. The figures I have seen are that somewhere in the vicinity of 660,000 more votes would have been counted on election night at the last election had that arrangement been in place. It seems to me that it makes perfect sense that if those votes have been cast and if they are located in that particular district that they should be counted on the night so that not only do the candidates and the parties have a better idea of the result on the night but, most importantly, that the Australian people have the most timely indication of what the result is going to be because, obviously, it is on them and their future that the result has such a great impact. I wish to support the bill.

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