John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President Ferguson, for taking over my duties in the chair a minute early. I was a member of the committee and I did participate. I have since left the committee, which was a bit unfortunate from my perspective because I did not get to see and participate in the formulation of the report that was developed. I did go to a number of the schools. I visited the Australian Electoral Commission here in Canberra and schools interstate. We had planned visits to my own state of Queensland but, unfortunately, I could not attend the one that took place in Townsville, and the one that was planned for the Brisbane city region was not able to take place at all. So there were some people whom we did not hear from. I felt that the unfortunate part of the inquiry—and this is not necessarily the fault of the secretariat, the chair or anyone in particular—was that, although we tried to get a balanced view as to what was happening in the area of civics and civics education not just in our school system but in the broader community at large, that was not necessarily always able to be achieved.

We did visit some schools. I recall that we visited a school in Tasmania where there was a highly switched on class in the area of civics and they responded very well to the inquiry. But this could be contrasted with the other end of the spectrum where there were people and teachers—and I am not blaming teachers—who were not as well versed in the area of civics and so, of course, civics was not treated with the same sort of priority as it was in the school we saw, for example, in Hobart.

The other school that comes immediately to mind is the one that we visited in the Northern Territory. The school in Hobart was a junior school; the school in the Northern Territory was a senior school. Again, the people there were highly switched on. The students in that particular class were highly switched on to the electoral processes. But the unfortunate part was that that small microcosm were the only group in that school who were switched on to electoral reform, electoral matters and politics in general, and that was because they were participating in a legal studies course.

I think that one of the weaknesses that I saw in the various inspections that took place—and I do not know if this is reflected in the report, because I must concede that I have not read it at this stage—was the fact that, where there was strength in teacher presence and knowledge and strength in that particular element of the school curriculum, civics was done very well, but where that was lacking it was done poorly indeed. I am sure that this has been addressed in the recommendations of the committee and I am sure that something will be done in the longer term to redress this situation.

One of the things that did concern me as a member of the committee was people’s ability to place themselves on the roll under the new enrolment regime that has been put in place by this government. Again, I have not seen the speech by the member for Bruce, but we had concerns, even if they were not on the Hansard record. Given the way in which some of these meetings at the schools were conducted, this of course was not likely to be forthcoming in the junior school area but more in the secondary school area. We did hear concerns expressed about people’s ability to place themselves on the roll under the new enrolment regime. There are some real concerns that young people will not be aware of the need to enrol themselves and to participate in the electoral process. This is a great concern indeed when one considers that these people will probably this year have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in a federal election for the first time and that right will not come around for another three years.

Interestingly enough, there were some initiatives where high school students who are becoming eligible to vote as a result of their pending 18th birthdays receive a birthday card which reminds them of their role and their responsibility as potential electors in Australia. That is good. But whilst this is a good program, it certainly does not reach all the students.

We went to Warburton and spoke to the Indigenous students at a junior-cum-secondary high. It was interesting to see the challenges that they are faced with in terms of linking into a civics program that has a meaningful outcome for them. We heard, particularly in the Warburton area, that the Indigenous community related more to local government elections than to state or federal elections. Of course the concept of Federation is not necessarily understood either by some members of the Indigenous community or by the broader community at large. That became a fundamental concern of mine in the conduct of this particular inquiry.

We did receive representations from the migrant community in Sydney. They expressed their concerns about the ability to have other migrants participate in the electoral process and that there should be no barriers placed before migrants participating in the electoral process.

Another issue that was of particular concern to me was in respect of the number of people who travel overseas who are not on the roll when they leave, and their prospects of enrolling once they are overseas. Under the new regime it poses a number of difficulties. I am quite sure that this was not taken up in the committee’s report, but a suggestion did come to the surface during the inquiry that, with the stricter regime in place for passport application these days, the passport application process may well serve in a dual manner to act as a registration for election and may well overcome the need for people to go through some overly rigorous process in an overseas country to get themselves on the electoral roll. I do not believe that that has been taken up by the committee at this stage.

I mention it in this debate because I think it is something that should be looked at in the future. It warrants real consideration not only for those who might be on the roll and moving overseas temporarily, but those—particularly the young people—who will spend two years overseas travelling around and then find that an election has been called and they have great difficulty getting on the roll.

One of the greatest rights that we have in our democratic society is the right to vote, the right to elect the government that we want to see put in place, even though some people will not agree with the government that has been duly elected to office. That will always be the case. If that right is not freely available to be accessed by people, such as many of our young people, they find themselves becoming cynical and detached from the system. Anything that overcomes that is welcome indeed. Whilst I do not believe that it is part of the recommendations of the report before the Senate chamber today, I would think that that is one of those sleeping issues that, at some stage, needs to be taken up by government, regardless of whatever complexion it might be. We should not in any way put obstacles in the path of those who want to participate in the electoral process. I commend the inquiry in that it sought the views of a wide range in the community. Whether everyone believes that civics is being well treated will be seen in the longer term.