Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the opposition amendments as proposed.

The requirement for electors to sign a certificate declaring that they are qualified to cast an early vote prior to being issued with an ordinary pre-poll vote came into effect at the 2010 election. Similar requirements have been removed from a number of state and territory jurisdictions, with the aim of speeding up the issuing of ballots. There is no evidence available to suggest that this change impacts on either the number of electors applying to vote by pre-poll or the overall integrity of the process when compared to pre-poll voting at previous elections. What we are doing today is moving to identify pre-poll voting as ordinary voting. In order to treat these pre-poll votes as ordinary votes, this requirement for the signing of the certificate is not required.