Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Five per cent? I read 15 per cent. That is large. It is a significant amount of the community that are casting their votes in that way. If you have been scrutineering in a polling booth on an election night, you will know that prepoll votes normally do not get counted with the votes on that night—they go off and are counted elsewhere. That can slow down the count in seats. It is important—essential—in a democracy that we have the count done as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

The way I read this change is that the prepoll votes cast in an elector’s home division—and a lot of them are cast in home divisions—will be able to be counted as ordinary votes, wherever practicable. I imagine that most of them could be, just from my observation of it and my involvement. Those votes will be counted on the night or they will be counted very quickly, so there will not be that time lag. That means that the result can be known a lot quicker in a particular area. Some we know quickly and some we do not, for certain reasons. This is a very welcome change as well.

Another change in the bill restricts the number of candidates that can be endorsed by a political party in each division. Previous speakers have put it on the record that this came up with the recent by-election in Bradfield. I am sure it has been an issue before, but it was highlighted in Bradfield by the large number of candidates from a particular party. It is just good sense to make this change.

This bill is most welcome. It is a bill about inclusivity. It is bill about shoring up and strengthening our franchisement and removing what I see as some areas of disenfranchisement that came in with the 2006 amendments. I commend this bill to the House.

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