Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you for the reminder, Senator Brown. Senator Brown put forward a private senator’s bill that came to a vote in this chamber. The Democrats have had legislation in the past as well—we may well even have some before the chamber at the moment as part of an omnibus bill—which sought to generate a referendum to make that change. Even though it has been official party policy of the coalition parties to support that change, when that came to a vote in this chamber they did not support it. They voted against it and therefore the bill did not progress. It was actually passed by a majority of the Senate at the time but, because such bills need to have an absolute majority—it does not take into account people who are absent for pairs or other reasons on the day—it did not get past the hurdle.

This bill is an opportunity to strongly emphasise once again that we are going further and further down this path of disqualifying a growing number of Australians from being able to run for parliament because of that barrier in the Constitution. If all of us recognise and support dual citizenship, as we all do under our parties’ policies, and we are all passing more and more laws expanding the number of people who are dual citizens, then it is about time that we initiated that referendum to amend the Constitution. If all parties support that policy, as I think we all do, then it is all the more reason to initiate a referendum to be conducted at the same time as a federal election so we can make that change. It is not only a matter of equality; it is a matter of Australia missing out on the skills that many of those people would bring to our political system. It is not just missing out on the skills they would bring to parliament; they are not even able to be candidates. They are precluded from even contributing as candidates and being part of the debates and engagement with the populace that happens throughout the electoral and democratic process.

There is one point I would like to make before I allow Senator Ludwig to get on with his amendment. It is of a reverse nature. We are emphasising the importance of citizenship, the rights of citizens and the obligations of citizens. One of the key rights you have when you become a citizen is the right to vote. It is probably one of the key incentives that people would think of when they decide to become an Australian citizen. Yet significant inconsistencies in that area are sticking out more and more. The more than we want to emphasise and promote the importance of our obligations and responsibilities as citizens—and that is meant to be a key reason behind the government’s arguments with the citizenship test they are proposing—the more we need to get consistency in how those rights and obligations are implemented. The simple fact is that there is a group of Australians now who have been quite consciously and deliberately disenfranchised, even though they are Australian citizens—that is, prisoners. All prisoners have now been disenfranchised under the Electoral Act.

Another inconsistency that sticks out, and is looking more and more outdated, is the fact there is a significant group within the community who are not Australian citizens but who can still vote, and that is all people who are British subjects who were eligible to be on the roll prior to 1984. I think that is when the Australia Act was implemented—on Australia Day 1984. There was a savings clause, what is often known as a grandfathering provision, which meant that all British subjects—not just British citizens but British subjects—eligible at that stage to be on the roll would remain on the roll. All of those people, if they were eligible at that time, remain eligible now, 23 years later.

There are many thousands of people in that circumstance. I am not seeking to pick on them, to somehow target them or to cast aspersions on them, but the simple fact is there are many thousands of people who are not Australian citizens who have had the right to vote now for over 20 years. At a time when we are reaffirming the importance of Australian citizenship and encouraging people to take up citizenship, we are keeping in place a measure in the Electoral Act that removes incentive for those people to become citizens. I think it is time to once again draw attention to that. I urge the government to amend the Electoral Act or, at the least, to explain what the rationale is for that savings provision to still be operating 23 years later. It would probably have been quicker to call a quorum, but I have all of those things on the record now. I will allow Senator Ludwig to move his amendment.