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

The government will be opposing these amendments. Amendments (1) and (3) on this sheet have the effect of delaying the commencement of most of the measures in this bill until 15 January 2017. For the reasons I have previously outlined in the context of similar amendments moved by Labor and by Senator Day, the government does not support this delay. The government does not support this as it would unnecessarily delay the commencement of these very important improvements to our Senate voting system.

Proposed amendment (4) and parts of amendment (2) on this sheet have the effect of removing below-the-line savings provisions currently in place in the Electoral Act that allow voters to make a certain number of mistakes when voting below the line. The government has already removed these provisions as part of our amendments to below-the-line voting and has included a savings provision whereby a vote is formal if a voter numbers at least six boxes below the line from 1 to 6 in order of their preference. The government recognises the intent of these amendments to insert provisions enabling optional preferential voting below the line, which are somewhat similar to the government amendments that have already been agreed to by the Senate. The government amendments, however, are entirely consistent with the final report of the JSCEM inquiry into this bill, which recommended that optional preferential voting below the line with voters directed to number at least 12 boxes to minimise vote exhaustion. For these reasons, the government will not support these amendments.