Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will be supporting the legislation and making some other comments, as my comrade from the Northern Territory, the member for Lingiari, has done. There are things that we need to continue to bring to the notice of this House and its members when it comes to the AEC's performance and the effect that is having on democracy in our Northern Territory. I do want to support the elements of this bill that were articulated extremely well by you, if I can say so, Deputy Speaker. The member for Oxley pointed out that the changes in the legislation, when it comes to the naming of parties or the increase to the number of people that are required in parties before they're taken seriously, are good changes, as is the 12 days of pre-polling. I support those elements, and there's no need for me to go over that ground again. There are other elements of the AEC's performance and this legislation that I want to bring to the House's attention.

I also want to emphasise the importance of the role of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and the work that it does. It's incredibly important. As the member for Indi and many others have said, we're all here because we believe very much in democracy, so I thank that committee for its important work.

However, I do also need to bring to the House's attention the contribution from the member for Perth and, in particular, the comment that he made about Clive Palmer being supported by the WA Libs. I'm not saying that every member of the WA Liberal Party in this place needs their head read, but a lot of what I've heard from them over the last couple of days makes me incredibly disappointed. Yesterday, a member of that political organisation from the west tried to politicise paedophilia and claim that those on this side were not for the kids but for the paedophiles. It's just disgusting, and it's unbecoming of people in this place. They had best leave. They had best resign. If they're not going to uphold the high standards of integrity that should be demanded of people in this place then they should resign.

They should likewise resign if they are going to mislead the media as part of a protection racket to make excuses for those whose incompetence or worse led to our interpreters from Afghanistan being left at the airport and not allowed to get onto flights. Members of the WA Liberals, veterans themselves, say that that's not happening. They say that every combat interpreter has been able to get onto a plane. They're the people from that organisation who, instead of backing the WA people, backed a bloke like Clive Palmer. Wake up to yourselves! It's noted.

To return to the bill, the government's proposed changes to the Electoral Act have many glaring omissions. Members would remember me highlighting the unconscionable behaviour of those opposite, the federal government, in relation to the AEC office in the Northern Territory. The AEC office in the Northern Territory had 15 employees, and part of the job of that group of Australian public servants was to go out into the communities of the Northern Territory—where, as all honourable members know, we've got the lowest enrolment in the country by far—and do electoral education and enrolment. There were 15 employees in total in that team, which was going out into the communities in the Northern Territory, signing people up to the roll and educating them about the electoral process and how to have their voices heard—voices which have been largely ignored by those opposite forever.

The government cut the staffing of the Australian Electoral Commission office from 15 employees to three. They moved the team that does the electoral education and enrolment in the Northern Territory—a big place, bigger than Texas—to Brisbane. They said, 'No, they can do that job from over there.' Even before COVID, how was a team of people in Brisbane going to enrol people in the remote communities in the Northern Territory and educate them about our electoral process—about our democracy? How was that going to happen? It was another deliberate attempt by those opposite, the coalition federal government, to deliberately disenfranchise the First Nations voters in this country more broadly and in the Northern Territory specifically. The member for Lingiari well pointed that out, and the evidence shows that that is exactly what is occurring.

As the member for Lingiari pointed out, it took until 1962 to give First Nations people the right to vote. But, as we've seen from the actions of those opposite, they're not happy with that. They want as few people as possible in the Northern Territory, particularly in the seat of Lingiari but also in my seat of Solomon, to be enrolled. They're making it as hard as they possibly can. The member for Hughes mentioned the need for ID. A lot of First Nations people don't have identification, but when they do have identification—because they're involved in government services such as Medicare, or Centrelink if there's no work—then there's direct enrolment which connects that First Nations person, through direct enrolment, to the ability to vote. But the coalition—which the member for Hughes was part of until very recently—have deliberately, through the AEC, started to stop that from happening, again deliberately disenfranchising First Nations people. And, in a second, I'll tell you exactly why they're doing that. In several substantial ways, the AEC is using its discretion, prompted by the federal government and those opposite, to prevent enrolment and voting by First Nations people. As a result, in 2021, we have an effective gerrymander against First Nations people as the member for Lingiari said, , and also voter suppression of First Nations people. That's disgraceful, isn't it? It's Australia in 2021! But that's what this tired eight-year-old government is trying to do to win federal seats, to win NT seats and to win local government seats.

We know that the government has failed to sufficiently close many gaps. Three out of 17 Closing the Gap targets are on track, we heard recently in this place. But the government is also willing to not close the gap, and is actively working towards not closing the gap, with regard to First Nations voting opportunities—that is, participation in our democracy. And the government is, obviously, doing this because it sees an electoral advantage for itself. We saw it in the NT elections last year. In several of the electorates in the Northern Territory at the NT election last year, the result came down to a handful of votes. Do you know what happens when you've got the lowest enrolment of First Nations people in the country—disgustingly low rates? You win by a handful of votes instead of losing by a handful of votes. So the deliberate attempts of those opposite, through the Australian Electoral Commission, are achieving the outcome of deliberately disenfranchising First Nations people, and they're just picking up seats where they wouldn't normally if the First Nations people had a vote.

We're coming up to a by-election in the Northern Territory in a place called Daly. I won't get into politicking around who's a better candidate; I know them both. I think what the people of that electorate deserve is the best possible candidate that the majority of the people in that seat think will represent them well. We've got some big Aboriginal communities in that electorate, and we've got some big non-Aboriginal communities in that electorate. And we know that, because of deliberate—and successful—attempts to disenfranchise the First Nations vote, the voter turnout will be a lot higher in the non-Aboriginal areas. So let's see the outcome of that election. We hope that every single eligible voter in that electoral area has a vote, because the person representing them in the NT parliament should have the confidence of all the people who are eligible to vote in that electoral area. Let's see what the results are. But we know that there are about 50,000 people in the Northern Territory who aren't enrolled to vote. I don't know what that team in Brisbane are doing, but they're not effectively getting people on the roll in the Northern Territory.

As the member for Lingiari said, the AEC is cooperating with the government to suppress that First Nations vote, and, in the process, it is discriminating against them in a way that may very likely break federal laws. That's one of the reasons why some Territorians have made complaints to the Human Rights Commission, and we hope that their complaints are taken seriously. I congratulate those Territorians for taking that step and giving voice to their concerns.

If the AEC were prepared to stop discriminating and just get on with direct enrolment, which facilitates eligible Territorians being enrolled and able to vote, then we would be doing a lot better. It would be very quick and easy to correct the huge electoral injustice that has now been going on for almost a decade. It's imperative that these complaints, that've been made regarding this AEC policy about direct enrolment and update inactions, are resolved well prior to the upcoming federal election, because Territorians—no matter whether they're First Nations or non-Indigenous—deserve an electoral voice and a voice that is not suppressed by this government, those opposite and their accomplices.

First Nations people will be able to work with us to close all these gaps so that they can join in determining their own futures. I think what you'll find is when that respect of being an Australian citizen is honoured by making sure that they've got the ability to have a voice we will see all sorts of gaps starting to close, because we will be doing things, as the government likes to say, with Aboriginal people rather than to Aboriginal people.

These Electoral Act changes that're needed need to happen right now, because these oversights—in large parts of Australia, including my electorate of Solomon—see large amounts of First Nations people underenrolled, and it's simply not good enough. The existing Electoral Act does not sufficiently provide machinery that could not be rigged by bureaucrats, who conveniently back the government that appoints them. It is a serious issue. These loopholes that the AEC, with the support of the federal government, continue to exploit need to be fixed. We clearly must expect a lot better out of the AEC.

I want to thank the shadow special minister for state, Senator Don Farrell, and encourage the work that he's doing to assist the AEC to get back on the path to honour direct enrolment for First Nations Australians.

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