Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters I present the committee’s report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled Inquiry into the implications of the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Act 2009 (NSW) for the conduct of Commonwealth elections.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—Declining electoral enrolment continues to present a significant challenge not only for Australia but also for many countries and jurisdictions. Existing paper based enrolment requirements under Commonwealth legislation are a deterrent to the current generation of Australians who are accustomed to conducting business with government agencies through electronic transactions. The introduction of flexible approaches which modernise electoral enrolment processes is a vital component of addressing the challenge of declining enrolment.

The New South Wales parliament has taken legislative action to address concerns over declining enrolment levels with the introduction of new electoral enrolment legislation which received bipartisan support and was assented to on 14 December 2009. During the debate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Mr Craig Baumann MP stated:

The Liberal-Nationals do not oppose this bill because we believe it better reflects the democratic system in place in New South Wales.

The legislation gives effect to a smart enrolment system concept that has been developed in the state to introduce a new automatic enrolment system for New South Wales elections. The Smart Roll system operates around the notion that there are alternative ways for electors to be enrolled and to notify a change in their enrolment details, particularly where such information has already been provided to other government agencies. New South Wales legislation also allows for enrolment for provisional voting on the day of polling, subject to adequate identification being produced.

In evidence to the committee, the New South Wales Electoral Commissioner, Mr Colin Barry, stated that there were four aims of the Smart Roll process: to reduce the number of eligible NSW electors missing from the electoral roll; to improve the time in which electors’ address details are changed when they move address; to improve the quality of the enrolment register in New South Wales; and to provide electors and citizens with a simpler system to enrol and have their addresses updated. With the passage of this legislation, New South Wales will no longer rely on the Australian Electoral Commission to prepare and maintain rolls for New South Wales elections. The New South Wales Electoral Commissioner will assume responsibility for preparing and maintaining a roll for each New South Wales electoral district using enrolment data supplied by the Commonwealth and data held by various New South Wales government agencies.

The committee was asked to consider the implications of this legislation for the conduct of Commonwealth elections. The New South Wales legislation could have significant implications for the conduct of federal elections if Commonwealth legislation is not amended to allow for similar provisions. Having two different enrolment regimes operating at the Commonwealth and state levels creates the potential for elector confusion. Of particular concern is the scenario whereby voters in New South Wales are enrolled automatically for that state’s elections and mistakenly believe that they have also been enrolled for the purpose of federal elections. During debate in the New South Wales Legislative Council, in which the bill received bipartisan support, opposition member the Hon. Don Harwin MLC stated:

Many people will also be annoyed when they find out that they have been automatically enrolled for State and local government elections but that they still need to fill out a paper-based application to be enrolled or to change their enrolment to vote in Federal elections. Of course, the remedy lies in action at a Federal level.

The committee has determined that legislative change is required at the Commonwealth level to complement the new New South Wales legislation and to facilitate opportunities for the AEC to effectively address declining enrolment participation across Australia by allowing the automatic enrolment of electors. If granted the power to implement similar automatic enrolment measures, the AEC has acknowledged that it would proceed with caution and conservatism, and would apply carefully designed business rules to ensure the integrity of the electoral roll is maintained. The committee supports Commonwealth legislation being amended to allow the AEC to automatically enrol electors on the basis of data provided by trusted agencies.

To ensure that automatic enrolment does not inadvertently limit the ability for eligible electors to exercise the franchise, election day enrolment is proposed as a safety net to capture those electors who have not been picked up through automatic enrolment processes, as well as those who have been removed from the electoral roll in error or enrolled at the wrong address. While accuracy and entitlement are critical to the integrity of the electoral roll, it is important not to overlook that roll completeness is also a fundamental element of roll integrity. Implementation of the committee’s recommendations will reduce the potential for elector confusion which would likely prevail where two different enrolment systems are operating at the Commonwealth and state levels. Moreover, the recommendations include the provision of further measures to progress reforms which will assist the AEC in its ongoing challenge to address the declining rate of electoral participation in Australia.

I thank my committee colleagues for their contribution to the report, and those organisations and individuals who prepared submissions and appeared as witnesses before the committee. I would also like to thank the committee secretariat for their work in preparing this report. I commend the report to the House.

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I rise to speak on this Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry, which looked into the implications of the New South Wales Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Bill 2009 for the conduct of Commonwealth elections, including any consequences for the enrolment of persons living in New South Wales for the purposes of Commonwealth elections.

We have just heard the chair of the committee provide the formal report and the recommendations that were made by the government members on the committee. The first recommendation that has been made in the report by the government members is:

The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 be amended to allow the Australian Electoral Commission to automatically enrol electors on the basis of data provided by trusted agencies.

The second recommendation is:

The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 be amended to allow for electors to enrol on Election Day and to issue a provisional vote, subject to the elector being able to provide suitable identification to the Australian Electoral Commission.

The third recommendation is for complementary amendments to give effect to these recommendations.

Opposition members and senators agree with the objective of increasing the number of eligible Australians enrolled and eligible to exercise the franchise. It is a very important objective and one that we have consistently sought to give effect to in this place. However, the maintenance of the integrity of the roll is critical. It is absolutely fundamental that people have confidence in the integrity of the roll, for the value of the franchise as well as public faith in our electoral processes.

As a consequence, opposition members have put in a dissenting report. We do not agree—we strongly disagree—with the recommendations that are listed in this report. The proposal to enact a radical and untested provision to automatically enrol voters to the Commonwealth electoral roll endangers the integrity of the electoral roll and potentially the degree of public faith in it.

The government majority report based its case for automatic enrolment on an alleged decline in participation. However, no evidence is provided to illustrate that Australia is undergoing a dramatic decline in enrolment or voting due to the current processes, procedures and requirements. Indeed, if you look over the last three or four years, the improved management of the rolls by the AEC—which is, I think, commended by both sides of the House—may well lead to a temporary decline in numbers due to the more effective management of the rolls and the removal of those not entitled to be enrolled.

Furthermore, the responsibility to enrol to vote lies with the individual. This is a very important factor, I think, in the consideration of this report. We have to have a responsibility of people in the community to ensure that they are enrolled. It is fundamentally their responsibility. It is not for the state to automatically enrol people without their knowledge and for them to just assume, turn up and expect to be enrolled. It is a fundamental responsibility within our democracy for people to exercise their duty to ensure that they are properly enrolled and, when they move, that they advise the commission accordingly and then remain on the roll as a part of their fundamental responsibility. The Commonwealth Electoral Act requires those eligible to enrol to vote. Any implication that there is an onerous requirement should be rejected. Complying with the current requirement is not especially difficult; in fact, it is made very easy by the commission and it is far simpler than many other standard procedures that people apply for in their everyday lives.

Recommendation 1, which looks at amending the act to automatically enrol voters on the basis of data provided by trusted agencies, is strongly opposed by the opposition members and senators. The provisions of the New South Wales amendments have not yet been tested either in practice between elections or at an election, and there remain substantial questions about their effectiveness and their impact upon the integrity of the roll. The experiment in moving away from the traditional and well-regarded enrolment procedure should not be replicated in Commonwealth legislation, as the risks have not been assessed in any sense. The AEC believes that the declining enrolment rate is in part caused by outdated and overly prescriptive legislation. If this is taken at face value, there is a reason to reconsider some of these practices, but it does not justify a movement away from individual registration to automatic enrolment.

Firstly, the reliance on external data sources that have been collated and then are utilised for other purposes does not make them fit for use in forming the electoral roll. Even the government majority concedes this in paragraph 2.3 of the majority report:

… there is concern about the potential for the integrity of the electoral roll to be compromised by allowing elector records to be updated based on data received from trusted agencies—

such as tax file numbers, driving licences or whatever—

when that data has not been collected specifically for the purpose of updating the electoral roll.

Furthermore, while the New South Wales procedures allow the commissioner to determine trusted data, opposition members and senators remain to be convinced that government-held data sources are appropriate for such a necessarily rigorous process as compiling the electoral roll. A 1999 report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration, Numbers on the run: review of the ANAO audit report No. 37 1998-99 on the management of tax file numbers, found that there were 3.2 million more tax file numbers than people in Australia at the last census, that there were 185,000 potential duplicate tax records for individuals and that 62 per cent of deceased clients were not recorded as deceased in a sample match. That sort of inaccuracy is common among other trusted data sources, and to rely on those trusted data sources as a basis for enrolling people is fraught with danger, and the integrity of the roll is put at great risk.

In simple terms, where there are such examples of inconsistency in Commonwealth data, there cannot be sufficient faith in this data being used to automatically add people to the electoral roll. Given that there are a number of federal electorates that have margins under 100 votes, such as McEwen, Bowman and Robertson, even a one per cent error in the information sourced from the various agencies would have significant ramifications for the outcome of a seat or even an election.

The second recommendation, which is looking to allow electors to enrol on election day, also has a number of major problems, as it will expose the roll to fraudulent enrolments and potentially cause significant delays on election day. The uncertainty of this provision was illustrated by Mr Barry, New South Wales Electoral Commissioner:

We are going into some uncharted territories. There are some risks associated with the uncertainty about how many people are going to turn up on election day …

In addition, it cannot be expected that the election officials, given the pressures and time constraints placed upon them on election day, will closely cross-check every enrolment form accurately. In some cases the election official is also open to people claiming to be the person on the driver’s licence when indeed they are not. There will be fundamental disputes with election officials on election day.

Secondly, the recommendation will cause lengthy queues on election day. It will also provide delays in finalising the count while awaiting verification of the enrolments received that day. Third, the election day enrolment will inadvertently provide an incentive for people not to comply with the existing law and initially enrol or update their election details when they move residence. Finally, election day enrolment breaches the important principle that candidates should know their electors.

In conclusion, such changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 as recommended in this inquiry could exacerbate perceptions in the community that the electoral system is flawed. It is more important to have a system that takes every step to maintain the integrity of the processes involved than to undertake untested measures to increase enrolment numbers. If the electoral system is seen to be lacking in transparency or integrity, there is every chance that Australians will become less likely to participate in the voting process, to the detriment of our democratic system.