Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This morning we saw another shameful chapter in the government's attempts to cling to power, with the introduction of a bill to introduce voter ID requirements for the first time in our nation's history. These electoral changes are nothing but a transparent attempt to save their own skins as the polls start to reflect what Australians are thinking. This is a tired, incompetent government that is well and truly past its use-by date.

These laws are utterly unnecessary. The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed that the number of vote discrepancies in Australian elections is vanishingly small and that no-one was prosecuted for multiple voting at the 2019 federal election. People living in remote communities, those dealing with homelessness, seniors and Australians escaping domestic violence often don't have easy access to identification. These laws mirror the kinds of rules we've seen in Trump's America. This is outrageous.

We are fortunate in Australia to have an independent electoral commission and a system that prioritises and enfranchises voters. We should be incredibly wary when the government of the day introduces electoral laws to solve a supposed problem that the Australian Electoral Commission says does not exist. This is not Trump's America. This is Australia, and, in this country, every single person is afforded the opportunity to cast their vote. If this government wants to change that, they've got one hell of a fight on their hands.

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