Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the bill and I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

ELECTORAL AND OTHER LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2017

I am pleased to present the Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and related legislation.

The Bill addresses the recommendations made by the first interim report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the 2016 Federal Election, relating to the authorisation of voter communication, which was tabled on 9 December 2016.

Concerns raised during, and immediately following, the 2016 Federal Election campaign, as well as submissions received during the Inquiry, show that the current authorisation requirements have not kept pace with technological change. This means that those who wish to hide their identity from voters can do so by communicating on mediums not imagined a decade ago.

These practices reduce the information available to voters in making their decision on polling day. Reduced transparency and accountability, as well as a reduced ability for regulators to trace the source of a communication, is not a good outcome for Australian democracy.

The Bill proposes to ensure that:

electoral communication is clearly authorised irrespective of how it is communicated;

electoral matters and political debate is not only open, it is also transparent; and

authorisation requirements are harmonised across different communication channels, cutting red tape for those who seek to contribute to public debate.

The Bill has no impact on the news media or on satire, academic or artistic endeavours, which are important elements of our open and free democratic system. Equally, it does not impose red tape, and require an additional authorisation, where it is already clear who is communicating.

This Government is committed to ensuring that voters are fully informed in making decisions at the ballot box. These changes to one of Australia's oldest pieces of legislation – the 99-year-old Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 – improve the requirements for all of those who engage in electoral communication, without imposing an undue burden on communication with voters.

The Parliament has been well served by the work of its Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which regularly examines aspects of our electoral system, and the issues that arise from the conduct of national elections.

I commend the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for its work to date in identifying the need to reform the authorisation regime and I look forward to their further work.

The changes to the Electoral Act proposed in this Bill will not take effect until six months after Royal Assent and therefore will not affect the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

I commend the Bill to the Senate.

Debate adjourned.