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

It is not first past the post. Senator Conroy knows it is not. It is a reform which will empower the Australian people to determine what happens to their preferences. Instead of having their preferences traded and directed by political parties into directions that the voter may not support, this will ensure that it is the individual voter who determines what happens, not just with their primary vote when voting above the line but also with their second, third, fourth and subsequent preferences.

Yes, we have made a deliberate decision, which has been well advertised and which I think is broadly supported, that if a voter ends up not following the guidance on the ballot paper by filling in a lower number of boxes than six then the vote will be saved, because we need to err on the side of the franchise. We need to err on the side of counting those votes that have been cast and making sure they are properly taken into account. That is something we have put forward very transparently as our proposal.

Senator Muir, you are entitled to disagree with the reform that we have put forward. You are entitled to vote against it. You are entitled to try and move amendments, of course. But that is very openly and transparently our position. That is our preferred approach. We would like to think that there is majority support for our preferred approach in the chamber, but let's see what happens when we ultimately get to vote on the various amendments and on the bill.