Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I wanted to cite an article in The Guardian, this week, that goes to the heart of this issue. It is written by someone I have never met by the name of Van Badham, who says:

After the election of 2013, the Greens lost the senate balance of power to a diverse group of minor and micro-party senators; the government need six of the eight to pass their legislation without Labor or the Greens. Initially believed to represent the conservative side of politics, all eight, in various capacities, have since committed the politically unforgivable sin of not only thinking for themselves, but voting that way, frustrating Coalition attempts to legislate policy priorities – like the May 2014 budget – ever since.

She then goes on to describe why those opposite would want to gut the crossbench. But she also has a discussion about the motivation of other parties and individuals in the chamber. She says:

The Greens have been advocating senate voting changes since 2004 when they were denied a coveted Victorian senate seat, losing to Family First’s Steven Fielding when voter preferences flowed against them. It’s a flow that originally gave them seats in the senate, when WA Greens founder Jo Vallentine got elected on a “Nuclear Disarmament Party” ticket and built the Greens from there.

With their balance of power lost, it’s now a tap they’d like to turn off; with the Libs and Xenophon—

apologies; I am quoting directly from the article—

they’ve agreed to disable the mechanism that allows preferences to be redistributed amongst parties with a low primary vote.

She goes on to make the very important point:

Australia is poised to erode one of the most powerfully enfranchised electorates in the world – and we’re losing it without a sophisticated discussion.

All we get from those in that corner and all we get from those over there is a three- or four-line slogan—a slogan. Tony Abbott would be proud of you for your sloganeering on this issue. She then gives a brief guide to how Senate voting actually works, saying that each state selects six senators when they achieve the 'quota', and she describes the ballot paper:

If you choose to vote “below the line”, you number every single box of every single candidate of every single party in the order you wish them elected. If you choose to vote “above the line”, you mark a “1” next to your chosen party’s name, thereby delegating them to assign all the preferences for you. The parties register these with the Australian Electoral Commission pre-election. The vast majority of Australians vote above the line.

I would like to make a point for those senators who have not voted for that long here in Australia that it is a simple matter to ask at any polling booth that you would like to see it—you ask the electoral official. If you walk in and you do not know the how-to vote card, because you have not had a chance or you have not been interested until that moment, you can ask for a copy at every single polling booth.