Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] It's a privilege to follow the member for Lingiari, particularly after such a thoughtful and important speech. If anyone has been sitting in the chamber or watching these proceedings online and has heard that something like 16½ thousand, if not more, First Nations Australians in the Northern Territory are not able to be enrolled to vote—and, therefore, aren't given the basic right of participating in Australia's democracy—and aren't moved by that, then I would be shocked. I would like to note that it's probably appropriate that the minister at the table for that important speech is the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and I would expect—and, knowing the way the minister has conducted himself, I would be very hopeful—that he would follow through on the reforms that the member for Lingiari has just outlined as urgent.

Could I also have indulgence to say this. Because of the member for Lingiari's announcement that he won't be contesting the next election, this may be my last opportunity to speak after him in the parliament, and I would like it to be recorded in Hansard that it's been a privilege to have served with him in Labor's caucus, even for the short time that I've been able to do so, and I would like to thank him very much for the support and the friendship that he has shown me over the years, and to put him on notice that he's not going to be able to get away with not giving me that support and friendship, even if he's not in the caucus next to me after the next election! Thank you for letting me do that, Deputy Speaker.

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Counting, Scrutiny and Operational Efficiencies) Bill 2021, as the member for Scullin noted, sets out a range of measures which are designed to increase the efficiency of voting and counting and, as with the member for Lingiari, I don't intend to go through all of those; they've been set out in the chamber in previous speeches. I note that the member for Scullin indicated that there has been some advice that the government says there may be more legislation to come, to enable the Electoral Commission to deal with issues that might arise in holding an election during a global pandemic. But I will say this about this legislation: whilst it brings in some reforms, it doesn't bring in nearly enough—importantly, those reforms mentioned by the member for Lingiari but not limited to those.

We often hear it said in various permutations—and many of us who are involved in politics and parliament have said it ourselves—that democracy isn't perfect, but it's the best system we have. While that is very true, it is nonetheless the responsibility of all of us who have the privilege of being elected to be members of this parliament to continue to strive to make our democracy better. The most fundamental way of participating in democracy is exercising the vote, and if Australians aren't able to be involved in voting, they cannot exercise that right.

But the problems in our democracy go further than problems with the way elections are run, of course. No-one needs to have polling or research to tell us that the damage done to the trust in politics and politicians over the last decade and longer runs deep. While we may have seen at various times during this pandemic greater trust in government than in the years preceding it, it would appear that that trust is fragile. So those of us who are elected to be in the parliament must do more to bring that trust back, but we must bring it back in a profound and sustainable way, not because of any short-term measures. That will require broader reforms to the way we behave as politicians, both in this parliament and outside of it, to the way this parliament operates in question time and other times, and to the way democracy operates during elections and at other times.

I am very proud to represent Dunkley in this parliament. My community elected me on a promise to work to address the declining trust, and I intend to keep that promise. I want to note then that, while this legislation does bring in some reforms that would deal with some of the logistical difficulties for the Australian Electoral Commission in running elections, it could do much more. We could do much more. We could, for example, do the hard work needed to introduce fixed four-year terms and have the Australian people agree to reform the Constitution to allow that to happen.

For the 2019 federal election, the AEC employed a temporary workforce of some 90,000 people. There were a number of people from my electorate, as there were from the electorates of every other person in this chamber, who were part of that 90,000 total, and they are again every two to three years in the lead-up to an election. The AEC provided over 500 pre-poll or early-voting stations across this country. It issued more than 1½ million postal-voting packages, had more than 550 mobile polling teams visiting more than 3,000 locations, and provided just over 6½ thousand polling places on election day. Imagine how much simpler that logistical exercise would be if we had fixed four-year terms, which is something that every mainland state in Australia has. Imagine if the AEC were able to plan for the leasing of all the counting centres and the booking of the school halls for election day, and were able to plan for the pre-poll venues—some of which are better than others, it must be said—and for the employment of its temporary workforce, knowing when the federal election would be. There's no doubt that not only would the budget be saved millions of dollars but also the AEC's efficiency, and the effectiveness of all of those measures, would be enhanced.

We would also, as a parliament, as a country, as people going about our day-to-day business, know when the election would be. At the moment, of course, it's anyone's guess which weekend the election is going to be. It could be any weekend—33 days from today, for example—up until 21 May. It's commonly said that not even the Prime Minister knows when the election is until the Prime Minister knows when the election is and calls it. That's a state of uncertainty not just for the Australian people but, as I've said, for the AEC trying to plan for an election. They're now trying to plan for an election in a pandemic, which is just so much more difficult. Of course, because we don't have national fit-for-purpose quarantine, and because the vaccine rollout is so delayed by the bungles, the AEC is in the state of uncertainty that families, businesses, schools and organisations across the country are in, not knowing what the public health measures are going to be at the time of the election and having to plan for all of these contingencies. Somewhere around a quarter of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated, and we don't know what proportion of the Australian population, let alone the eligible population, will be fully vaccinated by the time of the next election. We have an electoral commission that has to plan for all of those contingencies.

The other benefit of a fixed four-year term is the benefit to democracy. We wouldn't have to have federal governments already on a campaign footing for the next election from what feels like almost a year or 18 months into their term. We wouldn't have a situation where no-one knows when the election is until the Prime Minister calls it. We all know from history—it doesn't matter which political party they're from—a prime minister calls an election when they think they can win. An election wouldn't be at the whim of a prime minister; it would be at a fixed time. It would benefit governments too, because they could govern. They could spend, as we've seen at the state level, a significant portion of their term of office governing, making hard decisions, bringing in important structural reforms, before having to turn their minds to how every single decision may play out in an election which is to come. They could govern for the good of the people, not for their own electoral benefit. I can't see how that could hurt anyone or do anything other than benefit our country.

Maybe we'd have governments that could implement real reforms that have five-, 10- or 20-year benefits and plans attached to them. My fervent hope is that we could finally deal with a real plan to address climate change for all of the reasons that we've spoken about over and over again in this parliament. It could be a plan that's good for people, for businesses, for the country and for the world, without a government—like we've seen for the last two or three elections at least—always having an eye on short-term electoral benefit. I'm proud and pleased that Labor has a policy of fixed four-year terms, and I will continue to argue for them and raise them as a policy at every opportunity, because I am fervently of the belief that fixed four-year terms would benefit our democracy and, therefore, benefit the people that we are here to represent.

There are other significant electoral reforms that we need to see. We do need to see a voice to this parliament. We do need to see Australia being a republic. There are reforms to the operation of our parliament that would also improve democracy, such as reforms to question time and codes of conduct for those of us who are in this parliament. There are reforms to our democracy like an integrity commission, which this government has promised but has failed to deliver, which will go to the heart of trust. We have to not only act with integrity and transparency as parliamentarians and as governments but be seen to act with integrity and transparency. A national integrity commission is a significant part of that. This government should be looking to introduce reforms such as truth in advertising at elections—that is, truth in political advertising. It beggars belief that political parties need to have laws imposed on them to tell the truth, I think. Nonetheless, it's clear that they do, as do individuals who are campaigning, such as Clive Palmer, who has been named already. We should be looking at introducing laws about truth in political advertising—again, not just to do the right thing but to be seen to do the right thing and, as parliamentarians, to have imposed upon ourselves the sorts of measures that the public are asking us to impose.

These aren't just ideas that come from federal Labor meetings or committee meetings in parliament. These are ideas that come to me week after week from members of my community who say: 'We want all of you in Canberra to do better. We want the government to do better. And we want you to introduce reforms that will allow you to be seen to do better.'

So, while there is much more that could be said about reforming democracy, from donations to spending caps, I will end by saying that I am pleased that reforms are being introduced today, but it is very clear that the time where piecemeal reforms are going to be good enough has passed, and we do need to look to those bigger structural reforms, not just to get trust in democracy back to the levels that we used to enjoy but also to ensure that our democracy keeps functioning as well as it can to deliver for the people we are here to represent. Minister, again, I'm pleased that you were at the table to hear the member for Lingiari's submissions or contributions to this debate, and I look forward to the government taking up his suggestions.

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