Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, you can call it cosy if you like, but it was a sensible decision. I think that, even now, there would be members of the coalition who would admit that that was the wrong course of action. We defeated that legislation, so you're not required in this country to produce photographic evidence to vote. There's a certain degree of trust in that process. The level of people who vote more than once is absolutely minuscule. I could probably get the exact figures, but I have a feeling that something like 16 people were discovered to have voted more than once at the election before last. So there's only a tiny group of people that ever vote more than once. You've got to have a little bit of faith in the Australian people that they'll participate genuinely in this debate, they'll have the opportunity to express their point of view and that, at the end of the day, they'll make the right decision, which, in my view, is a 'yes' vote for Indigenous recognition.