Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fairfax for his question and I can certainly understand some of his anxieties that were expressed in his question. Obviously all of us have been dismayed by the fact that some 1,000 ballot papers appear to have been lost for the Western Australian Senate election. All of us are dismayed and dumbfounded as to how this could possibly have occurred. But there is, as we know, a case before the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, dealing with, amongst other things, the way the AEC conducted the Senate count and the Senate ballot in Western Australia. There is also a report due from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, and I think I would like to wait for that case to be concluded and that report to be delivered before I further comment on the Australian Electoral Commission.

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