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

I thank the member for Makin for his question. The Australian Electoral Commission has nearly for 20 years worked on a program of amalgamating regional AEC offices where it sees fit and it is appropriate, in order to create more efficient work environments and to carry out its work, most importantly, as effectively as it can to enrol people and to maintain the roll. With that in mind, in particular in South Australia and with the coincidental timing of leases in the number of AEC offices in individual electorates, the commissioner saw an opportunity to amalgamate the offices in South Australia to create one substantial superoffice in the CBD, one office in the northern regional part of South Australia at Port Augusta and one in the south-eastern regional part of South Australia at Mt Gambier. The purpose of doing this was to create a more efficient and effective AEC, getting people on the roll and managing the roll. It is certainly a requirement that, come an election, the AEC will have a physical presence in every federal division. That physical presence will allow for ballot draws, for nominations and for voting support advice and activity within the division.

I know the member will realise that in a seat like Makin internal transport routes and the capacity to get to a physical location are much easier than, say, in the electorate of Gray, which includes areas as remote as Port Augusta, Port Lincoln and Ceduna. An office in Port Augusta would struggle to support people in Ceduna.

As a consequence of these sorts of practicalities, the commissioner has seen fit to continue a process of electoral office rationalisation in order to create a more efficient and effective Electoral Commission. I stress the commission is independent and comes to these decisions based on his view of what an efficient structure can best look like for all states and all jurisdictions. The new office in South Australia, I can inform the member for Makin, is due to be opened in coming weeks. And I can inform the member for Makin that it is absolutely the intention of the government, and the stated intention of the Electoral Commission, to carry out these amalgamations in a way that produces the best jobs and the best work environment to create the most productive Electoral Commission to do the fundamental work which that commission needs to do.

It is necessarily the case that your constituents, if they wish to talk face to face with an official of the Australian Electoral Commission, will need to travel into the CBD to do that. I believe the new office is in King William Street. I believe that that is an accessible location. The commission themselves have worked particularly hard in recent years to make themselves accessible both through telephonic communication and, importantly, through the internet for enrolment purposes and for enrolment advice updates. So I am confident both that the servicing of the needs of your constituents and those of South Australia and all other states where these amalgamations are taking place will be improved and that the jobs and retention of skilled staff at the AEC will be improved as we build an AEC that can better cope with the challenges that a changing society will throw at them in future years.

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