Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday, in the Canberra Times, Waleed Aly wrote:

The quality of a democracy can be gauged by the extent to which its electoral process is inclusive of maligned sectors of society. Democracy may be inherently majoritarian in nature, but if its core concept is that government derives legitimacy from the consent of its people, that legitimacy depends on every constituent, however peripheral or unsavoury, having the opportunity to speak through the ballot box. A democracy with iniquitous electoral laws is unworthy of the name.

That is what this legislation, the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2006, seeks to do. It does so by attacking the rights of some of the most vulnerable members of our community to involve themselves in that democratic process. Young people, new migrants, Indigenous Australians, prisoners and the homeless will all have their democratic right to be involved in society silenced by this bill. Many of these people are the very people who are most disillusioned with governments and with involving themselves in politics and the processes of the day. But instead of encouraging these people to get involved in the democratic processes and decision-making going on around them, this government is making it harder for these people to involve themselves in decision-making. It is a blatant attack on some of the most disadvantaged members of our community, and it is also a blatant manipulation of the electoral system by the Liberal government.

It annoys me to see this government trampling on the rights of vulnerable members of our community, but it annoys me even more when it is doing it for its own advantage. The only government senator who has sought to defend this legislation today came in here acting like the whole thing was a joke. Well, it is not a joke to take away the rights of people and it is certainly not a joke to take away the rights of people in order to advantage yourself—especially when that disadvantages people. But that is the message. That is the only justification we have had for this legislation. He came in here saying that this was something that he could laugh and be chirpy and smiley about—manipulating the process to improve advantages for his own political party. We have heard Minister Abetz do it in public before, and the only person who came in here to represent the government’s position did the same thing: crow about how this is going to help their party stay in government.

Let us look at the ways in which they are seeking to do this. First, there is the early closure of the electoral roll. The announcement of an election date is a significant and obvious trigger for people to update their electoral details and make sure they are enrolled. It is commonsense. People respond when an election is called by doing this. For people who have recently become citizens, young people who have just obtained the right to vote and people who have just returned to Australia, it is an obvious trigger for them to make sure that their details are updated. But this bill seeks to take away that capacity. Last time this was proposed, Simon Castles wrote in the Age that the only thing surprising about the government’s plan to close the electoral roll as soon as the next election is called, and thus prevent tens of thousands of Australians from voting, is that someone in government actually remembered that young people do vote in this country, because young people are one of the groups in our community that will be significantly disadvantaged by this legislation.