Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance regarding the government's planned postal plebiscite on marriage equality. The Australian Bureau of Statistics have announced that people have to be 18 by 24 August to participate in the government's postal plebiscite. By my calculations, using the ABS's own census data, this means that over 50,000 18-year-olds who turn 18 between 24 August and 7 November will not be able to vote. Can the minister confirm that this is the case?

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

The first point I would make is that in any exercise involving the electoral roll there is a deadline after which no further updates can be made to the roll. The second point I would make is that if Senator Rice is now arguing that it would have been preferable to conduct a full, compulsory, personal attendance plebiscite, the government would agree with that. But given the Greens and others decided not to support the government's preferred way of giving all Australians a say on whether the definition of marriage should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry, the government did as we flagged we would do, and we went with the next best way. The next best way is a marriage law survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The details of that have been well and truly released by now.

The senator is quite correct that the deadline for enrolments—the deadline for all eligible Australians to ensure their details are up to date or that they have newly and freshly enrolled—is 6 pm on 24 August. I would encourage all Australians who are eligible to participate to ensure that they are validly enrolled and to ensure their details are up to date by 6 pm on 24 August because, of course, we want every eligible Australian to have the opportunity to have their say. At the end of this process, this will help facilitate the Australian community moving on from an issue that has been around for a long time.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rice, a supplementary question?

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will point out that that is in stark contrast to the AEC, where 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds can preregister. Does the ABS intend to include a personal identifier on people's marriage equality postal ballots? Will the ballots include a number to identify their name and address? If so, how can people trust that an individuals' views will not be matched to their census data, which would spoil the secret vote? If not, how is the government going to assure people that the poll will not be vulnerable to fraud? (Time expired)

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

All of the appropriate integrity arrangements are in place, and the Australian Statistician has assured me there will not be any capacity for people to identify the way that any Australian has chosen to fill in their survey form under the process that the Australian Bureau of Statistics is conducting.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rice, a final supplementary question?

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the extreme difficulties in carrying out a postal plebiscite that doesn't disenfranchise young people, that doesn't result in a harmful and hurtful campaign to LGBTIQ people and our families, that is either fatally subject to fraud or fatally undermining of our privacy and that, at the end of the day, isn't binding, why won't the government ditch this postal plebiscite and move to bring on a vote in this parliament this week so that parliament can do its job and vote for love and for equality?

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

Firstly, I do not agree with the characterisation of the Australian marriage law survey conducted by the ABS that Senator Rice has put forward. Secondly, it was the government's preference to give every eligible Australian a say through a compulsory personal attendance plebiscite, but the Senate did not agree with that course of action, so we have chosen an alternative course. The reason we've chosen that course is that we believe that there are good people in the community across Australia who have a diversity of sincerely and strongly held views on both sides of the argument. We believe that the best way and the fairest way for this issue to be settled on a more permanent basis, and to facilitate a consensus across the community, is to give every Australian the opportunity to have a say and that is precisely what we're doing.