Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, they did vote, Senator Boswell. They were 27,000 votes taken into the count, pursuant to the current provisional voting provisions, that the Electoral Commission after the election was unable to put onto the electoral roll. You do not have to be mathematician to work out that, with some of our seats only being won by about 100 votes, that sort of activity can change an electoral result. The Australian Electoral Commission carried out a full habitation review of the federal electoral division of Isaacs in order to sample the accuracy of the roll. The review found that some 89 per cent of electors were enrolled at the correct address. In other words, over 10 per cent were not. Now, there are problems with the electoral roll. There is no sense living in denial of that, and this is what the government seeks to address.

To have all this sort of hyperbole, and Senator Faulkner frothing at the mouth using the word despicable a hundred times at about 200 decibels, does not really assist the debate. He uses some of the facts like a drunk uses a lamppost—not for illumination but for support. Can I suggest that what he ought to be doing is looking at some of these figures, disaggregating them and being a bit more serious about this debate. I am aware that there are time constraints; I think that we as a government have kept our contributions to a minimum. I think the arguments have been well rehearsed, both in the public arena and in the second reading debates. I will not keep on. I could have made a much longer contribution on these matters, but can I simply say that the government is motivated by the fact that there has been identifiable fraud—a federal member of this parliament having gotten himself onto the electoral roll before he became an Australian citizen. We have had a lady go to jail in Queensland for electoral fraud. We have had example after example, and in a democracy it is vital not only that you have as extensive a participation as possible but also that there be confidence by the people that there is integrity in the electoral roll. That is what is motivating this government—to ensure that the integrity of the roll is maintained.