Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all those many senators who have contributed to this debate, which I believe has taken close to 20 hours now since we first received the message from the House of Representatives. The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 will ensure that future Senate election results truly reflect the will of the Australian people. The measures in this bill will empower voters to direct their preferences according to their wishes instead of having them traded and directed by backroom operators and political parties through insufficiently transparent group voting ticket arrangements.

Some speakers in this debate have asserted that these reforms will advantage one political party or another. That is not correct. The only people who get advantaged by this reform are voters, who will now be able to direct where their preferences go. Do not take my word for it. I will quote to you the comments of a senior Labor shadow cabinet minister and long-serving Special Minister of State and then till recently the shadow Special Minister of State representing the Labor Party. This is what he said on this point in the Federation Chamber this morning:

Over the course of the last few weeks, there have been many pieces of misinformation spread about the bill that is currently being debated. Some have said that the bill will deliver the coalition 38 or 39 members—a controlling majority in the Senate. That is not true …

This is Mr Gray in the House of Representatives this morning.

That is not true, unless people vote for it. And if people vote for it … that is how the ballot falls. None of us can predict the outcome of future elections, but all of us should be concerned about future elections being manipulated by pop-up parties being created and by outcomes being confected by those whose interests are not the national interest, are not the interests of the people and are not the interests of our community.

I could not have put it better myself. Candidates putting their hand up for election to the Senate will do well or not so well depending on how well they do in persuading people across Australia to support them at the next election or indeed at any subsequent election. That is precisely the way it should be. The result of the next election is of course entirely and appropriately a matter for the Australian people. The bill responds to key elements of the interim and final reports of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the 2013 federal election, which were tabled on 9 May 2014 and 15 April 2015 respectively.

Again, some speakers on the Labor side have argued that our reforms bear no resemblance to the recommendations—the unanimous recommendations—made by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. Let me answer that criticism that has been raised—again in the words of the long-serving Special Minister of State and shadow special minister of state representing the Labor Party, the continuing senior Labor shadow cabinet minister Gary Gray. This is what he said in the Federation Chamber as recently as this morning:

… they—

that is, these reforms—

are 95 per cent of the reforms that were recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

So do not take my word for it. This is what a senior Labor shadow cabinet minister said as late as this morning.

The Labor Party is deeply divided on this. The truth of the matter is: when this issue was comprehensively considered by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, it was Labor members on that committee that most strongly advocated for the reforms that the government has put forward here to improve Senate voting arrangements. It was Labor members on that committee that were among the strongest advocates. It was the Labor deputy chair of that committee, Alan Griffin, who 12 months ago urged the government to get on with it. It was Mr Gray, a senior shadow cabinet minister, who went on national television, in The West Australian in my home state of Western Australia and anywhere and everywhere to urge the government to get on with it and implement these reforms. Then, of course, as recently as this morning, he has said that the reforms in front of the Senate actually implement 95 per cent of what the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters unanimously recommended should be done to improve our Senate voting arrangements.

The bill proposes to introduce optional preferential voting above the line, with voters to number at least six squares in the order of their preference, except where there are fewer than six squares above the line. It also abolishes individual and group voting tickets, to return the control of preferences to voters—precisely what was recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. It removes the capacity for an individual to be the registered officer or deputy registered officer of multiple political parties—again, entirely consistent with the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. It allows political party logos to appear on ballot papers for both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The government has considered the issues raised and the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. In its most recent report inquiring into this bill, it recommended to introduce a form of optional preferential voting below the line as well as above the line. And we have decided to adopt that recommendation. So when Senator Wong talks about mistakes—no, they were not mistakes. We have gone through the proper parliamentary process. We have put our bill to the scrutiny of a parliamentary committee which has the job and the expertise to scrutinise that bill. And, of course, that committee made some recommendations, which we have supported and they are reflected in our amendments.