Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

As members would recall the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Provisional Voting) Bill 2011 will repeal the requirements for provisional voters to provide evidence of identity as a precondition of their votes being included in the count for an election. This requirement was put in place by the previous government in 2006. It resulted in a situation where provisional votes were dealt with in a way that was inconsistent with the treatment of other types of declaration votes—namely, absent, postal and pre-poll votes. By repealing the requirement for provisional voters to provide evidence of identity, all declaration votes will be treated equally.

The bill replaces the requirement to provide evidence of identity with a test similar to that used in previous elections. The test provides for the divisional returning officer to compare the signature on the provisional vote envelope with the signature of the elector on previously lodged enrolment records if there is any doubt as to the bona fides of the elector.

This bill is supported by the Electoral Commission, which in its submissions to the inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into the 2010 federal election and matters related thereto recommended that the requirement for the production of evidence of identity by provisional voters should be repealed. The government will be supporting the amendments to the bill moved by Senator Xenophon and agreed to by the Senate. These amendments provide for the divisional returning officer if not satisfied that a signature on an envelope is that of the elector must make all reasonable attempts to contact the elector to require them to provide evidence of identity.

We see these amendments as providing a desirable safety net to prevent what would be otherwise valid additional votes from being discarded. They are a substantive improvement to the bill, and we will support them. I commend the bill to the House.

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