Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak in this cognate debate on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Counting, Scrutiny and Operational Efficiencies) Bill 2021, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill 2021 and the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Offences and Preventing Multiple Voting) Bill 2021. In doing so I foreshadow that I will move the second reading amendment standing in Senator McCarthy's name. Labor supports these bills. As noted, the counting, scrutiny and operational efficiencies bill introduces a range of measures designed to increase the efficiency of voting and counting. The party registration integrity bill increases the number of members required for registration of a political party. The bill also prevents parties from being registered if their name replicates a key word in the name of an earlier registered party, unless the earlier registered party consents. The electoral offences and preventing multiple voting bill creates a new category of designated elector in an attempt to address multiple voting and expands the existing offence relating to interference with political liberty.

These bills arise in part from the work coming out of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the 2019 federal election. This inquiry process follows every federal election and is an important opportunity for the parliament, in a cross-party manner, to examine all aspects of the conduct of an election and seek to make recommendations to improve transparency and efficiency and maximise the opportunity for all voters to have their say in our essential democratic processes. Of course, there are many areas in which those in this place disagree when it comes to potential reforms and improvements to our electoral processes. However, where we can find agreement, it is important that we progress those changes to continually enhance the efficiency of our national elections. It is in that spirit that the opposition is prepared to support these three bills before us today.

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Counting, Scrutiny and Operational Efficiencies) Bill 2021 contains welcome measures to streamline the AEC's processes so we can have a smooth-running national election and a result as early as possible. We made it clear that Labor believe the Morrison government should be doing much more, but at least this bill will make things somewhat easier for the AEC. Running a national election is a much more difficult feat than running a state or territory election or local elections, even in ordinary times, particularly in an environment absent of fixed terms. However, running a national election during a pandemic and specifically in the situation the nation faces right now would be a very tall order indeed. In fact, as things stand, it could be next to impossible. Thanks to this Prime Minister's inability to do his job, with his failures on quarantine and on vaccination, this nation is now more fractured than ever before, with vastly different situations on the ground in terms of health orders between jurisdictions. The current situation would make it very difficult indeed, if not impossible, for the AEC to conduct a consistent and fair national election, certainly not without substantially increased resources, something this bill does not go far enough in addressing.

However, the bill does do some good things. It contains important savings provisions to reduce the number of wasted postal votes, and it allows greater opportunities for people voting overseas to be able to securely and efficiently participate in our elections. The bill also limits the prepoll period to 12 days. This is something the opposition supports. Lengthy prepoll periods are resource-consuming for the AEC and, of course, for political parties. The bill also allows for early sorting of prepoll votes, something that will enable a timelier result on election night. Amongst other efficiency changes, the bill also removes the requirement for the authorisation of electoral material to include the name and address of the printer of the material. This amendment will reduce the number of frivolous complaints to the AEC.

Then we come to the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill 2021. This bill increases the number of members required for registration of a political party. The bill also prevents parties from being registered if their name replicates a key word of the name of an earlier registered party, unless, as I've said previously, the earlier registered party consents.

In our dissenting report for the inquiry into the 2019 federal election, Labor members of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters recommended that the minimum number of members required for party membership be increased to 1,000. It is currently 500. Two previous JSCEM inquiries, into the 2013 election and the 2016 election, recommended this increase. The government is proposing a slightly higher minimum number of members for a non-parliamentary party—1,500. Party registration does come with privileges, and it is important that registered parties in our nation of more than 25 million people are able to demonstrate a reasonable level of community support. A 1,500 minimum is far from being an unreasonable proposition.

The bill also seeks to prevent a party from being registered if its name contains a word that is in the name or the abbreviation of the name of a registered political party. Quite rightly, there are a myriad of exemptions and appeal mechanisms included in the legislation. This amendment is intended to reduce voter confusion between established parties which have recognised names and parties which are subsequently registered. We know that some parties deliberately use words from the names of recognised parties for mischievous purposes. This amendment will address that issue, and the opposition supports it.

The final bill in this package, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Offences and Preventing Multiple Voting) Bill 2021, creates a new category of 'designated elector', in an attempt to address multiple voting, and expands the existing offence relating to interference with political liberty. The New South Wales Electoral Act contains similar provisions. This will allow a person to cast a declaration vote if there is a reasonable suspicion they may have previously voted in the same election. The drafting of these provisions means that polling officials will be unable to identify a voter as a designated elector. Importantly, the government and the Electoral Commissioner have given assurances that these provisions will not be able to be used to require a voter to provide identification. Labor considers this reasonable. It is longstanding and unshakeable Labor policy that we oppose so-called voter ID laws, as these types of requirements lead to disenfranchising of vulnerable and disadvantaged electors. The bill also seeks to deal with violence, intimidation and abuse where it is used to interfere with legitimate democratic processes such as the right to cast a ballot in safety and secrecy. It does this by providing clarity in amending prescribed offences and penalties. The opposition supports these measures.

Briefly I want to touch on the opposition's second reading amendment. At the request of Senator McCarthy, I move the amendment:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that the Northern Territory's enrolment rate lags behind the rest of the country with only 85.6% of eligible electors enrolled to vote; and

(b) calls on the Morrison/Joyce Government to close the gap by providing more resources to the Australian Electoral Commission so that people living in disadvantaged, remote and regional communities can exercise their democratic right to vote".

This is a matter that the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has considered in detail, and the committee has, indeed, received many submissions concerning the lack of enfranchisement of voters in the Territory, particularly remote voters, a very high proportion of whom are First Nations people. This is something this nation should not tolerate. More must be done in this space, and it is disappointing to say the very least that the Morrison-Joyce government has consistently failed to address this matter. I ask the government to consider this issue for inclusion amongst the next set of issues it attempts to deal with as part of much-needed electoral legislation amendments.

I'd also like to put on record my appreciation of the work that has been done by Senator Farrell on behalf of the Labor Party in the negotiations on the bills before us today.