Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] This is indeed a strange experience, not being in the parliament and actually speaking to it; I find it quite bizarre, to be truthful. But I do want to support the contribution of the member for Scullin, who has outlined Labor's position in fine detail and outlined the contents of the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Counting, Scrutiny and Operational Efficiencies) Bill 2021 and the associated legislation. It's not my intent to repeat the details that he has already given to the parliament. What I want to do is indicate my very strong support for the amendment which has been moved by the member for Scullin—in particular, paragraphs (2) and (3) of that amendment, which note that the Northern Territory's enrolment rate lags behind that of the rest of the country with only 85.6 per cent of the eligible electors enrolled to vote and calls on the coalition government to close the gap by providing more resources to the Australian Electoral Commission so that people living in disadvantaged remote and regional communities can exercise their democratic right to vote.

This is not the first time I've raised this issue in the parliament. Indeed, I just had the opportunity to scroll through speeches that I gave in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 around this very issue. The first of those contributions came as a result of the Commonwealth government cutting the budget of the Commonwealth Electoral Commission, which meant they were required to cut their staffing in the Northern Territory office from 16 to three. That had a direct impact on the capacity to educate and enrol people who live in remote communities, and it's something which is historically par for the course, it now appears, for the Liberal Party. In 1996, when the Howard government were elected, one of the first things they did was to get rid of the Aboriginal voter education and enrolment service in the Electoral Commission, limiting the capacity of the Electoral Commission to go and enrol people and to educate them about their obligations as citizens and their rights as citizens to exercise a vote. That, of course, is the key issue here.

We've now got real evidence that there has been a deliberate effort by the Electoral Commission not to enrol people, because of the passive way in which they've used their powers. This has been historical. It's not something new. They've used their discretion to effectively prevent enrolment of and voting by First Nations peoples in remote parts of the country. We have now, effectively, got a gerrymander against First Nations people and, I argue, voter suppression of First Nations people.

This suppression is so extreme—and I mentioned this in the parliament in June of this year—that it has led constituents in my electorate of Lingiari to take legal action to attempt to end this discrimination. On 15 June 2021, a complaint was made to the Australian Human Rights Commission about the maintenance of the electoral roll and conduct of the 2019 federal election, in respect of remote Aboriginal communities, by the Australian Electoral Commission. The Australian Electoral Commission, as you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker, maintains both the Commonwealth and NT electoral rolls by arrangement with the Northern Territory. This complaint was made by two constituents, Mr Matthew Ryan from Maningrida and Mr Ross Mandi Wunungmurra from Galiwinku. These Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land are the sixth and eighth largest towns in the Northern Territory. As is common in many Aboriginal communities, there are no enumerated street addresses or letterboxes and no Australia Post mail service directly to residents. Instead, residents collect their mail from community post offices or may use a private postbox.

In 2012, the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was amended to provide for direct enrolments and updates via sections 103A and 103B of the Electoral Act, an initiative of the then Labor government. It was done to address the alarming drop in the number of eligible persons then on the electoral roll, being only 91.63 per cent in 2009 and trending downwards. The amendments empowered the Electoral Commission to directly enrol eligible persons who were not on the electoral roll or update the details of persons on the roll, such as a change of address. To do this, the AEC can use electronic data from trusted agencies such as Centrelink, vehicle registration, driving licences and the Australian Taxation Office, and it has the power to use the contact details from the now very up-to-date Australian Immunisation Register. The AEC simply gives written notice to the person that enrolment or an update of an existing enrolment is proposed after the elapse of 28 days. If there is no response, the AEC actions the enrolment or update.

Importantly, the amendments explicitly empowered the AEC to give written notice to electors by electronic means, particularly email and SMS or text messages and via social media. In this electronic age, a large number of the AEC's notifications are, of course, done by these means. Electronic notification is now a key to the success of the direct enrolment amendments to the Electoral Act. The AEC state that it led to a staggering and truly outstanding 97 per cent enrolment in the 2019 election.

But the good news doesn't extend to electorates like Lingiari, or Durack in Western Australia, which sit at the lowest enrolment rates of 75 per cent and less than 80 per cent, substantially lower than the 97 per cent enrolment for Australia overall. And it's worth pointing out that the enrolment rates of First Nations peoples as at 30 June 2020 were staggeringly poor. In Western Australia, the enrolment rate of First Nations peoples was only 67.6 per cent. In the Northern Territory, the figure was 68.7 per cent—that is, 32.3 per cent of Aboriginal voters in the Northern Territory were not on the roll. I'm alarmed that, while it is clear the AEC are fully aware of these shortcomings in enrolment, the AEC and this government have chosen to do nothing about it. The primary reason the enrolment rate languishes in Aboriginal communities is that, as a matter of policy, the AEC does not apply the most effective tool at its disposal, namely, direct enrolment and update under sections 103A and 103B. The AEC claims that direct enrolment and update cannot be used because there's no direct post to residents in Aboriginal communities. The claim is wrong in law and must be rejected. The AEC has explicit power to give notice solely by electronic means and regularly does so for other Australians. The exercise of that power is not conditional upon the existence of a household mail service. Instead, the AEC simply chooses to use the law in a way that discriminates against a larger First Nations electoral voice.

The Northern Territory Electoral Commission has said that the majority of Aboriginal Territorians live in regional and remote areas that are not covered by the federal government's program. In its recent report, the Northern Territory Electoral Commission also said the failure to use direct enrolment creates 'an imbalance which places Aboriginal people at a direct electoral disadvantage'. This is a polite way of saying that in the Northern Territory there is a gerrymander. The AEC chooses to apply the law in a way that conveniently discriminates against First Nations voices being heard. By failing to act, this government is complicit in the AEC's discrimination. The AEC's policy predominantly affects First Nations residents in remote communities. It is discriminatory, and it breaches, we would argue, sections 9(1) and 9(1A) of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. The policy operates in practice as a form of voter suppression, or gerrymander, whereby the franchise for Aboriginal residents in federal and NT elections is suppressed or inhibited, compared with non-Aboriginal Australians and non-Aboriginal Territorians. In addition, Mr Ryan and Mr Mandi point out in their complaint that in the 2019 federal election the AEC did not ensure equal provision of polling booths to Maningrida, Galiwinku and other sizeable Aboriginal communities, compared with other towns in the Northern Territory, and these instances of indirect discrimination are also breaches of sections 9(1) and 9(1A) of the Racial Discrimination Act.

The Human Rights Commission has been asked to conciliate this complaint from my constituents. On 8 September the Human Rights Commission will hear the complaint by my constituents. This step is required prior to seeking a remedy of the Federal Court. If conciliation is unsuccessful, I am reliably informed that the Federal Court will be asked to find that the AEC policy and actions are indirectly discriminatory and therefore unlawful under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. I also note that the AEC has twice delayed giving my constituents its legal response to their complaint. I can only assume that the AEC denies what I have outlined and the facts that the complaint outlines. I assume we can expect the AEC will be squandering taxpayer money and, within the terms of legal representation and legal fictions, denying what are quite clear and obvious facts. If the AEC were prepared to stop discrimination and get on with direct enrolment, then it would be very quick and easy to correct the huge electoral injustices that have now been going on for almost a decade. It is imperative that these three complaints regarding the AEC's policy about direct enrolment and updates and actions are resolved well prior to the next federal election.

First Nations people deserve an electoral voice—they are Australian citizens—and a voice that is not suppressed by government or its accomplices. The electoral act currently has left too much to the discretion of the Electoral Commissioner and we need to have that rectified.

Due to these oversights, large parts of Australia which have large numbers of First Nations electors are under-enrolled. There are insufficient address records for them and there's an insufficient and discriminatory period of time to allow remote people to get to a polling booth.

We have an obligation as a parliament to understand and appreciate our responsibility to be sure that all Australian citizens who are eligible to vote are registered to vote—they have a right to vote—and turn up to vote where at all possible. We're seeing systematic discrimination in this country against First Nations people who live in remote communities. It's beyond time for this to be fixed. It's a matter of great importance.

We're doing some more work on the population data, but the 32.3 per cent could be a lot higher. At the moment, the Electoral Commission, of its own figures, says that there are 16,527 Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory who are not on the roll. I think we will find that it's substantially higher than that. That is shameful and it needs to be addressed as a matter of great urgency. But for some reason—for whatever reason; I'm not sure what it is—the Commonwealth government, your government, fails to understand or to want to do anything about it. The Australian Electoral Commission just denies that they need to do anything. Frankly, it's insupportable and it needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed now.

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