Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting the Democrat opposition to this item, on the basis that, while we are very concerned about the whole question of the early closure of the rolls, the particular aspect that the Democrats are dealing with here on my reading of it is very narrow. It is to deal with the question of the application of provisional voting for migrants seeking Australian citizenship whereas the more appropriate response to these matters is to actually knock out the entire section which goes to the issue of the closure of the rolls. That is what we do in our opposition to schedule 1, items 20, 24, 28, 29, 45, 51, 52 and 104 to 108, and similarly with the next question on a related matter. I would propose that at that point we will discuss in some detail the question of the early closure of the rolls. But I do think that this particular aspect that the Democrats are pursuing is far too narrow an approach on this matter. We do not have a particular problem with providing new citizens with the opportunity to enrol provisionally.