Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters

Committee activities (inquiries and reports)

Inquiry into allegations of irregularities in the recent South Australian State Election

Terms of Reference

On 13 May 2010 the Senate agreed to the following resolution:

1. That the following matters be referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for inquiry and report:
1. the circumstances surrounding the impersonation of Family First polling booth workers and the distribution of misleading voting information at polling booths in the recent South Australian state election;
2. the extent to which this was a calculated activity designed to mislead voters into directing their preferences in a different direction from that of the official Family First voting information;
3. whether comparable activity would be considered to be legal under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, including the implications flowing from the decisions in Bray v Walsh (1976), Evans v Crichton-Browne (1981), Webster v Deahm (1993) and Re Carroll v Electoral Commission of Queensland (1998);
4. what changes would be required to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 so as to prevent a political party (or others) engaging in such misleading and deceptive conduct at future federal elections;
5. the allegations that a single family illegally lodged more than 150 votes on polling day through impersonation of other voters; and
   
6. the allegations that a large number of votes remained uncollected from hospital facilities because of errors on the part of polling officials.
   
2. That in conducting the review the committee calls for public submissions and undertakes hearings in relevant capital cities.