Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It will be the third day under the new legislation, but under the current provisions of the act it would be the seventh day. The minister has tried to say that there is a large number—he called it ‘a lot more’—of prospective new citizens who would get their citizenship between day three or day seven and the day of the election, and they will be able to get themselves on the roll in advance and that might balance out or equate to the number that may have got their citizenship in the last 12 months or so but have not got around to putting themselves on the roll.

Frankly, that is just an absolute nonsense. As I said, if you know anything about the way in which citizenship ceremonies occur around this country, you know that they are not held every week. The operation of this provision that the minister is lauding as somehow an extension of the franchise is entirely dependent upon whether the election campaign period coincides with the citizenship ceremonies. It could well be, for instance, that in the area where I live there may be no citizenship ceremonies programmed during the 33 days of the election campaign. So in that situation nobody is going to be able to avail themselves of this supposed extension of the franchise.

However, as Senator Faulkner has pointed out, and as Senator Carol Brown and I pointed out in the minority report of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, thousands of people are going to lose the opportunity that they currently have to put themselves on the roll. That includes all those people who may have gained their citizenship in the period preceding the calling of the election but who have not got around to putting themselves on the roll. It seems that the government’s approach on this is that if you did not get around to doing it, it is tough luck, bad luck—you should have been a lot more enthusiastic, you should have been on the ball, you should have got yourself down to the electoral office and put yourself on the roll to make sure that on the day the election is called you are on the roll. And that applies to new citizens. That is an argument they can advance; I just wish they would have the honesty to get up and say that that is their position, that this is a case of double jeopardy—if you did not get around to putting yourself on the roll before the day the election is called then you have lost the opportunity once the election is called.

The fact of the matter is that there are many people, particularly people who are turning 18, who will be affected by this. As I said the other day in my speech in the debate on the second reading, when federal elections are held towards the latter part of the year, often young Australians turning 18 are in the middle of studying for their HSC or even doing their exams. Their minds might be preoccupied with what is an incredibly important thing for them and they might not have got around to putting themselves on the roll. There might be citizens who have been granted citizenship within the couple of months prior to the day the election writs are issued and who have not got down to the electoral office to put themselves on the roll. The current provisions in the act at least give them seven days to do that. These proposals from the government, these changes to the act, remove those opportunities completely.

You cannot come into this parliament and wax lyrical, pat yourself on the back, pump yourself up and beat your chest and say, ‘As a government we are going to take away the rights of these thousands of people who currently have them but we are going to find a small cohort of potential new citizens who, if they are lucky enough to have a citizenship ceremony programmed during the election campaign period, will be able to get themselves on the roll.’ This is just sheer and utter hypocrisy. It is sheer and utter banditry when it comes to the rights of those people who have an opportunity to put themselves on the roll. You do not promote democracy, respect for the electoral process and respect for the government by telling people their seven-day period of grace is going to be removed and then turn around and run some fictitious argument about a very small category of people and say, ‘Look how good we are; we are extending the franchise.’

I would like to know from the minister: what evidence was put before either the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters or the Senate committee that went to this particular issue of these potential new citizens saying that the act should be amended to give them an opportunity to get onto the roll? I am not suggesting that it would not be an extension if you maintained the current provisions. But there was no evidence brought forward by anybody complaining about that. There was no evidence or complaint made about the current provisions but there was plenty of evidence put forward complaining about the other part of this equation, which affects huge numbers of Australians, new citizens and people who will get the opportunity to enrol for the first time. At the end of the day, this proposition the minister is advancing is a complete and utter furphy.