Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

and think that that piece of legislation was actually put forward. While I have the opportunity to stand here and speak for ordinary Australians who have the right to speak, I will certainly take every moment of that time, despite the discouragement of those opposite who tried to shut down voters then, just as they would like to shut down my speaking right now.

Amongst those who missed out in 2007 were more than 4,000 18 year-olds who would have been voting for the first time. I have actually met a few of these 18-year-olds. I have spent a lot of my time working with young adults, and I know that there are moments when there is an opportunity for engagement. As a teacher you see them and you know that there is a teachable moment in it. And one of the most important things that can happen for an Australian citizen is to engage in voting at the very first opportunity. Through that act, young adults participate fully and come to an understanding of the power of their vote, collectively with others, to set the course of this nation, to contribute in a real and tangible way to a democracy. There is the whole process of going to a polling booth, taking one or a number of indications of how you might cast your vote, going through the process of having your name marked off, looking at the pages and pages of names of citizens there beside yours, taking those appropriately signed papers and going into a booth to cast your ballot in private. Yet, having desired to have that experience, as was their right at age 18, that experience was rudely ripped away from these young people as they were about to enter into that contract with our nation.

It is appalling that that actually happened and it indicates incredible cynicism and incredible negativity. It reveals the very significant difference between the Labor Party on this side of the House and the Liberal-Nationals on the other side, who still hold on to some notion, disconnected from our modern reality, that there are some people who should have rights, some people who should have a big voice, and that some people who have a lot of money can buy more place in our public debate than others. While those opposite support that, they oppose the participation of ordinary young Australians.

Those opposite also seem to engage in putting up arguments about the integrity of the roll. But I think it is important to put on the record how dangerous that fear-mongering is. When I looked back at some remarks I made last year in a previous contribution on an electoral legislative amendment, the facts showed that there were 71 proven cases of electoral fraud over a whole decade, which amounts to one in a million of the votes cast. Those opposite enacted a legislative amendment that saw the disenfranchising of half-a-million voters to catch 71 fraudulent voters over a period of 10 years. I would say that that is like cutting off your head to fix a broken fingernail. There is no sense of proportionality there whatsoever.

But I will return to what the bill does. It provides the Electoral Commissioner with the discretion to enrol, in specified circumstances, those people casting declaration votes who had been enrolled but were removed from the roll due to an error by an officer or a mistake of fact. The bill will also stop the divergence and inconsistency that is occurring between state and Commonwealth electoral rolls in the largest jurisdictions of New South Wales and Victoria. That is a significant improvement that the bill will bring.

Most importantly, the bill will enable the Australian Electoral Commission to deliver a more accurate electoral roll, because the Electoral Commissioner will be permitted to use accurate and timely information from reliable sources to maintain the current address of already enrolled electors. This bill will ensure that an elector will be notified of the Electoral Commissioner's intention to enrol him or her at a new residential address and be given the opportunity to object to the change. The bill will not provide the capacity to directly enrol new electors. People who are not on the roll will still need to enrol, in accordance with the current requirements of the Electoral Act. Perhaps that is the part where the Australian populace, and particularly those who lead in our communities—community leaders who are involved in politics at all levels of government, community leaders who are involved in schools, and community leaders who are involved in great institutions that help us stay alive, such as surf life saving clubs, and in Lions and Rotary clubs—can take part in actively supporting a citizenry to understand the full responsibility and capacity of engaging in casting a vote.

I commend the important changes that are embedded in these bills to enhance our democracy, and I commend the bills to the House.

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