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

I have to admit I do not really understand the question, but I will try to answer what I think it might be. If the Senate supports this legislation, the Australian Electoral Commission has said to us that they would need about three months between the passage of the legislation and the implementation of that legislation at an election. Obviously, I do not know when the next election will be. That decision, as far as I am aware, has not been made. What I can say, though—and we have given this indication on the record—is that there is an amendment which has been circulated by the Greens to, essentially, provide that this reform cannot take effect for a polling day that would happen before 1 July, so the first election that this reform could apply to under that amendment would be a polling day after 1 July. The government has indicated that we will be supporting that Green amendment.

If the Senate decided to support our very important reform tonight, tomorrow morning or next week—if the Senate votes in favour of it—the Electoral Commission will do all the work they need to do to give effect to this change and to implement it professionally and competently, providing adequate and appropriate education and information to the Australian people. It would not be implemented at an election until at least 1 July.