Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will not support this amendment. It effectively is about reintroducing group-voting tickets. The starting point that was identified when JSCEM undertook its inquiry into the possible need for Senate voting reform was that we needed to remove group-voting tickets because that is the reason that backroom deals occur. It is because you have to have those negotiations to then qualify to have a box above the line. In turn, some people have then used that, or responded to it, as an incentive to come forward with many parties. I remember the evidence given by Senator Leyonhjelm to the JSCEM inquiry about this very issue of forming many parties that then funnel the preferences. For the reforms that we need, group-voting tickets need to be abolished. We have come up with a very wise and simple solution, which is that the voter determines preferences. Again, of all the arguments that have been given over the past 24-plus hours, none of those people who are trying to knock off this Senate voting reform have come forward with a reason that the voters should not be the ones who determine their own preferences.

The CHAIRMAN: The question is that items 4, 7 to 13, 22 to 25, 28 and 39 of schedule 1, as amended, be agreed to.