John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, a moment ago you used the term ‘a lot more people’. Those are your words. Are you able to tell the committee: how many is ‘a lot more’? Of course, when you say that there is an extension of the franchise, what I do know is that there is a massive limitation of the franchise for ordinary Australian citizens, particularly for those who have just attained the age of 18 years, who will be precluded from enrolling and for whom there is no period of grace. For other ordinary Australian citizens who wish to alter their electoral enrolments—in other words, they are enrolled in the wrong electorate—the period to be able to do that is reduced from seven days to three days. We know that those are two massive limitations on the franchise. And, because of figures that have been provided in evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, we know precisely how many people in those categories would have been affected in the 2004 election. As the minister would appreciate, we know those figures for not only the 2004 election but for electoral events prior to the 2004 election.

Minister, given that there is the very defined group of not new enrolees but, in fact, new Australian citizens—that seems to be the best way of describing them for the purposes of the debate that we are having before the committee at the moment—and given that you have indicated that there will be some extension of the franchise for that number of new Australian citizens, could you provide the committee with an indication of precisely how many citizens would have been included in 2004 as a result of these changes? Or—and I understand that the precise figures might not be available because, of course, the provisions of the act were different at that time—could you provide the estimations of the Australian Electoral Commission? You used the term ‘a lot of people’. I would just like to know either a precise indication or a clear and best estimate of what ‘a lot of people’ actually means.