Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

He agrees with me on that. There were also Liberals for Forests, as Senator Joyce points out. These amendments deal with that mischief. If passed, they would mean that, on polling day, somebody would not be able to dress up and try to hand you a how-to-vote card that said 'Put your Family First' or 'Vote Greens' or 'Liberals for Forests' or 'True blue Labor'. They would not be able to hand out a how-to-vote card for an organisation very different from the organisation that appeared to be represented.

I think that these amendments are quite narrow. They do not raise the broader philosophical issues that Senator Ryan was very much entitled to raise and that I think will be the subject of further debate. The numbers are not here, but let us make it clear that this amendment was quite narrowly focused to deal with the mischief that occurred at the 2010 South Australian state election when the Labor Party's campaign—which Senator Feeney had nothing to do with because he was the architect of the stunning 2006 campaign—