Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is another attempt to protect backroom deals to determine preference flows and to deny voters their rights to allocate preferences in line with their values. You do not need to join many dots to understand how deferring the reporting date by two months is designed to scuttle Senate voting reform. The senators involved in this motion would know that the Australian Electoral Commission needs many months to prepare new IT counting systems and to educate voters in the new system. That is urgent work. Many people have commented on the need for thorough education. Labor's pushing for a later reporting date shows that it will try every parliamentary trick in the book to knock off this important reform. This proposal should be reported in its original form—the reporting date was taken in a responsible way.