Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for the first sitting after 1 January 2023".

The effect of this is simple. The effect of this motion is to put beyond the next election an attempt, on the eve of an election, to deny people a vote. Let's not mince words about what this is about. We know exactly what this is. This is about undermining support for the democracy here. It's about the exact tactics that we saw from Donald Trump. That's what this government's doing. They wait for the eve of an election, they wait for the final months leading up to an election, and they take one of their far-right-wing ideas—to try to deny people a vote—and whack it in front of the parliament right now

Let's make no mistake about who gets affected by this. People who are homeless and who are poor get affected by this. People who live in remote communities get affected by this. People who are elderly, who have given up their drivers licences, get affected by this. Everybody who turns up and sees endless queues on polling day gets affected by this. There is one outcome: the government is trying to make sure that fewer people vote.

Well, we happen to have a bit of faith in the Australian people, and our position is really simple: we want Australians to vote in Australian elections. That didn't use to be controversial, but in the last 24 hours, on the eve of an election, they've decided that's going to be a partisan point. Well, if you want to go to the next election telling Australians you want barriers between them and the ballot box, you're making it clear right here, right now. The Prime Minister, about to scoot off overseas, leaves this until the last day, because everything about this is about denying scrutiny. It's a desperate attempt to undermine the democracy we have in Australia.

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

After the last election, after millions of Australians voted, the AEC then did the check to work out if there was a problem with the integrity. Guess how many people ended up being prosecuted? Zero. Zero! So, for the sake of fixing a problem involving no Australians, the government want to stand in the way of thousands of Australians voting. This should be put off till well after the election.

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