Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition is pleased to support Senator Day's amendments. Senator Day's amendments introduce two new criminal offence provisions in relation to advocating the casting of informal votes. The first amendment is section 328C, which makes it an offence to distribute a how-to-vote card that is likely to mislead or deceive a voter in relation to marking a Senate ballot paper in a way that is informal. The second amendment is section 328D, which makes it an offence to publicly advocate for voters to mark a Senate ballot paper in a way that is informal. These amendments echo the previous section 329A of the Electoral Act, which was repealed, as we discussed earlier, in the late 1990s. What we discussed earlier, of course, was that the mischief was disposed of at the same time. These provisions are obviously introducing new mischief that needs to be addressed, and I do not believe that the minister, in his responses today, has given satisfactory assurances that the existing provisions will be able to manage that mischief.

Senator Day has explained his amendments far more articulately and efficiently than I could at this hour. Senator Day's performance stands in stark contrast to the level of information that has been provided to some critical issues in this debate. Despite hours of questioning from various senators, the minister has not been able to answer a simple question as to whether the government's bill would make it unlawful for a person to advocate to simply vote 1 above the line in the Senate. Senator Lambie's experience was perhaps the most stark. Senator Day understands that nothing about the government-Greens bill will prevent a person advocating such a vote, and he has quite sensibly moved an amendment to deal with that matter. Labor supports Senator Day's intentions and, accordingly, will support this amendment. If this amendment fails, we also notice that Senator Leyonhjelm has indicated his similar amendment, and we would support that as well.

The CHAIRMAN: The question is that amendment (1) on sheet 7890 be agreed to.