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

The committee is trying to establish whether you are right or wrong on that point, but what I can tell you and what I do know in relation to the other provisions regarding the closure of the rolls that you are putting forward in this bill is that, on the figures available from the AEC for the 2004 election, 78,908 new enrolees and 78,494 re-enrolments occurred in the period available. With the changes that are being made in this legislation, virtually none of those people will be enrolled. We also know that over a quarter of a million others changed their enrolment details in the seven days that were available. So when you get up here before this committee, puff yourself up and say, as I said, ‘We’re extending the franchise,’ the truth is the franchise is being massively limited for new enrolees and re-enrolees, and the franchise is also being limited, and unfortunately manipulated, in relation to those persons who want to change their enrolment details.

The truth of the matter is—and every senator in this chamber and every parliamentarian in this parliament knows it—that most people are not as obsessed as we all are about the electoral process. Of course the calling of an election triggers a person’s interest in the voting process. It triggers the need for them to make sure that their enrolment is accurate, that they are enrolled for the right address or that they are on the roll if they are an 18-year-old or if their enrolment has lapsed for some reason. As I have said before, these people are not rorters or manipulators. They are just ordinary Australians who want to cast a vote.

We know the franchise is massively affected for literally tens of thousands of people in that category. If you are saying the franchise is being extending in one very small and very defined area, put your money where your mouth is and tell us how many people are being affected by this new provision. I know the answer: it is comparatively a handful. If what you are saying to the committee is right—and I hope it is—it is a handful of people. The facts are that the franchise is being deliberately limited by this legislation in relation to new enrolees and re-enrolees. They will get no chance at all of getting on the roll—and of course over a quarter of a million people who want to make sure their enrolment is up to date and accurate are not going to have the opportunity to do that, and they will be voting in the wrong electorate. So do not come into this committee and talk to us about any extension of the franchise. This bill represents the most significant limitation of the franchise in this country since Federation. That is what it represents: a massive limitation of the franchise. It is absolutely undemocratic at its core.