James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion moved by the member for Lingiari. There are elements that are obviously extremely political that I don't agree with or accept as criticism of the coalition, but I certainly support the principle of this motion, which is celebrating improvements in Indigenous enrolment. Beyond question, I think that's an excellent achievement, but a job not done. I'm certainly in support of ensuring that everyone who is entitled to participate in our democracy can participate in our democracy. It has absolutely been very regrettable and unacceptable that, for an extended period of time—probably always—the statistics around Indigenous enrolment have not met the population-wide levels. We want to have every Indigenous Australian participating in our democracy and we will address in any way we can ways to ensure that Indigenous enrolment is at least meeting the standards and statistics that are the case for the rest of the population.

I certainly welcome that outcome, but it does provide an opportunity to address the second challenge, particularly in Northern Territory remote communities—and this has been highlighted in the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters hearings I've participated in—of the intimidation of Indigenous voters. After the 2019 election we held our standard electoral matters inquiry into the election and received some very concerning evidence in that inquiry regarding the intimidation of Indigenous voters. The best encapsulation of this was evidence received from Mrs Bess Price, whose daughter now serves in the Senate here. In her contribution to the evidence she made a very important point. She said:

In the 2019 federal election I was up in Milingimbi, up north. There was a Labor man there staring people down. He came and eyeballed me and threatened me for talking to people and informing them of what their rights were. He was aggressive throughout the day, and he often had members of the community walk in with other elders of the community to show them how to vote and who to vote for.

We managed to get a hold of AEC staff inside the building, and we told them: 'Keep an eye out for these fellows. They're the ones who are going in.' I've seen people going in with them and showing them how to vote, and using language—Yolngu matha was broadcasting on the radio throughout the day saying who to vote for in language. We were told that the unions had paid that radio station to broadcast in language who to vote for, and it was Labor.

How appalling and disgraceful!

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