Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Counting, Scrutiny and Operational Efficiencies) Bill 2021 and related bills.

Firstly, I'm pleased to see that the prepoll time has been reduced to 12 days, although I would personally like to see it reduced to even slightly less than that. In recent elections we have seen many Australians voting well out from election day—a long time out before the election day—when policies of the parties are still being announced. I think that's a threat to open, fair and free elections. I'm also disappointed that there have been no requirements in these amendments for people to show ID before they vote. I think that is an important integrity measure that has been overlooked. I find with great surprise that those who are most vocal about the need for people to show some type of vaccine passport or health papers to go to the pub or to cross a state border are the ones who are most vocal against simply showing a form of ID before you vote.

However, I am greatly concerned with the specific bill dealing with the party register integrity measure, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill 2021. This bill increases from 500 to 1,500 the number of party members a party needs to have to be recognised at an election. Now is not the time in our nation's history to try and narrow the field, to reduce the competition, to make it more difficult for independent and alternate voices to have their say. Now is not the time for a concentration of power between the minor parties—which this legislation will bring about. You just need to have a look at what is happening around our nation at the moment to realise that this is not the time to limit the voices of independents.

I no longer recognise the country that I grew up in. I look out and I see endless lockdowns across the nation. I see the greatest assault on our small business community since Federation. How is a small business person meant to survive when they are ordered out of their business by government for months but yet they are left with obligations for rent, and for which they may have personal guarantees signed for and underwritten by their own family home? That is the assault that we are perpetrating on small business. We are seeing the emergence of a police state, I saw scenes last weekend that I thought I would never, ever see in my country. We saw Victorian police pointing firearms at unarmed citizens and firing projectiles at high velocity at close range. This is not Australia. This is what you would expect in some Third World nation in South America where the police force was out of control. I've seen our police in Victoria arrest and handcuff pregnant mothers in front of their children in their own home. And their offence? For posting a protest on Facebook against the government. And against this background we want to restrict and make it more difficult for individuals and alternate voices to come to this place and have their say?

What about the censorship that is going on? We have got AHPRA, a health regulator, clamping down on any doctor or nurse that has an alternate opinion. There are many of them that have an alternate opinion to what our health bureaucrats are saying, but they are silenced and censored with a threat of losing their licence.

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