Additional Comments
SENATOR BOB BROWN
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens believe that our democracy will be
strengthened by greater participation and broader representation in the
electoral process and that the current system militates against both.
We welcome the reforms in the Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (How-to-vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill 2010 and the Electoral
and Referendum Amendment (Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2010. However
I believe that the bills could be improved with additional improvements.
I intend to use these additional comments to highlight some
key issues in these bills. These comments are by no means an exhaustive list of
improvements which the Australian Greens believe should be made to the
Electoral Act.
I submit that the following items be considered by the
Government and the Senate as improvements to the bills before their passage
through the Senate.
Lowering the voting age to 16 years of age
The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Modernisation and Other
Measures) Bill 2010 reduces the age at which people may provisionally enrol
from 17 years to 16 years. The Australian Greens believe that not only the
provisional enrolment age should be lowered but the voting age itself.
The Greens believe that all Australian citizens over the age
of 16 should be eligible to vote.
Young people pay taxes, live under Australian laws and can
leave home, have children, and join political parties. At 16 ½ years, young
people can join the Defence forces. The Greens believe that if our Australian
society bestows young people with all these responsibilities, it is reasonable
to afford young people access to the opportunity to vote. In its report on the
conduct of the 2007 federal election, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral
Matters noted that by lowering the provisional enrolment age to 16, outreach to
potential first time enrollers would be easier, as many more young people are
still in fulltime study at that age. Effective enrolment efforts could then
focus on schools and technical colleges to target 16 year olds. This would be
an important component in building an effective enrolment strategy over the
longer term.
Restricting the use of postal vote applications for party political
purposes
The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Modernisation and
Other Measures) Bill 2010 makes changes to the material which is able to be
attached to postal vote applications and requirements for returning postal
votes to the AEC.
The Australian Greens support theses changes. In deed, the
Greens have previously announced and drafted amendments to introduce in the
Senate that would require any PVAs sent out by political parties to be returned
directly to the AEC.
Further, we would move to amend the Commonwealth Electoral
Act to require that no written material can be attached to the postal voting
application form sent to electors by persons or organisations, thereby
preventing the distribution of election campaign material by political parties
and politicians via this means.
The widespread distribution of postal voting applications
(PVAs) by political parties and sitting members has resulted in a marked
increase in postal votes at federal elections. Since 1996 there has been an
increase in postal votes of approximately 96 per cent - rising from 383,264 in
1996 to 749,566 in 2007 (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 Increase in postal vote applications from
1996 – 2007
Source: Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Election
Statistics 1993, 1996, 1998, AEC, Canberra, 1999 (CD-ROM); AEC, Election
Results 2001, AEC, Canberra, 2002 (CD-ROM); AEC, Election Results 2004, AEC,
Canberra, 2005 (CD-ROM); AEC, ‘Virtual Tally Room: The Official Election
Results Election 2007’, AEC website, viewed 28 September 2009
A recent ANAO Audit Report noted that the AEC produces PVAs
for each election, and makes them widely available on announcement of the
election at AEC offices, post offices, and the AEC website and to all federal
Members and Senators . As a result, it is not necessary for parliamentarians
to use their printing entitlement in order to effectively disseminate postal
vote applications to constituents. Indeed, prior to 2004, there was no
entitlement that allowed parliamentarians to use their printing allowance to
produce PVAs.
Currently under the Commonwealth Electoral Act application
forms for postal voting can be issued by any person or organisation provided
they conform to 'the approved form' and are attached to or form part of other
written material issued by that person or organisation.
Parliamentarians can use their Printing and Communications
Allowance to print and distribute PVA forms with a reply-paid envelope as a
service to constituents. The Auditor-General's report released in September
2009 found that parliamentarians from the major parties and the Nationals
produced at least 8.23 million PVA documents in 2007-08 using their printing
entitlement. This is 2.9 million more postal vote application forms than the
number of voters enrolled for the election in 2007 -08 .
The Greens believe there are no grounds from an
administrative or participatory democracy perspective for postal vote
applications supplied by parliamentarians to be returned to parliamentary
offices prior to being forwarded to the AEC. Data from the 2007 election demonstrates
a considerable delay of forms returned via reply paid envelopes to
parliamentarians arriving at the AEC. Of the PVAs issued by the AEC 69% were
returned on the same day as the witness signature, whereas only 27% of PVAs
issued by Liberal party were returned within 4 days, and 36% of Labor PVAs were
returned within 4 days.
Irrespective of whether deadlines for the close of the
electoral roll are extended, this practice of double-handling presents the very
real risk of electors not being enrolled prior to the close of rolls. This
practice is also being used by political parties to harvest voter information
without their knowledge or consent. “Party” PVAs contain a return address to a
local or state-based campaign postal address, where electors’ information is
recorded before the information is passed on to the AEC. This diminishes,
rather than enhances electors’ enfranchisement.
Polling Day – how to vote cards
The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (How-to-vote Cards
and Other Measures) Bill 2010 makes some timely amendments to the Act.
The Greens agree wholeheartedly with the expansion of the
definition of the term to ‘publish’ to include the telephone and the internet.
We had prepared amendments to this effect in response to the recent use of
‘robocalls’ in the Tasmanian election.
The predominance of how-to-vote cards negatively impacts on
electors’ capacity to make their voting decision free from interference. The
adoption of above-the-line voting in Senate elections, especially in larger
states that feature a large field of candidates, means that should voters
choose to they can readily make just one mark on the ballot in order to cast a
valid vote. The argument made by the major parties for the necessity of
party’s how to vote cards to tackle vote informality rates is spurious. If
voter education is required, then non-partisan materials and programs should be
delivered via the AEC.
Accordingly, the Greens believe that voters’ interests would
best be served by the Tasmanian and ACT state election model where how to vote
cards are not handed out at polling booths on election day being adopted
nationally.
Truth in Political Advertising
The Australian Greens support the introduction of
legislation to ensure truth in political advertising. Legislation to impose
controls on political advertising and penalties for breaches would enforce
higher standards, improve accountability and promote fairness in political campaigning
and the political system generally.
We had prepared amendments to amend the Commonwealth
Electoral Act to make it an offence to publish or distribute an electoral
advertisement, which is intended to affect voting in an election that contains
a statement purporting to be fact that is inaccurate and misleading.
The current provisions in the Electoral Act only extend to
statements which are intended to affect the casting of votes and these
provisions have been interpreted very narrowly to apply only to how a voter
marks their ballot paper.
The Greens amendments would extend the truth in political
advertising provisions to apply more broadly to all statements/advertisements
which are intended or likely to affect voting in an election. The Electoral
Commission, if satisfied that an electoral advertisement contains inaccurate or
misleading materials, they may request the advertiser to either withdraw the
advertisement or publish a retraction.
Elections are an opportunity for political accountability
and it is critical that representations are accurate and honest. Under the
current system, it is possible for advertising that contains misrepresentation
and outright false statements to go unchallenged and without penalty. This can
be particularly damaging in cases where the advertisements are presented by
third parties, which under the current system are not required to identify
themselves and therefore make known their own political or ideological
position.
Although such legislation was enacted briefly in
Commonwealth law in 1983 -1984 it was repealed with the support of both the
major parties. Opposition to such legislation relies on the argument that it
infringes the right of free political communication. However truth in political
advertising legislation introduced in South Australia in 1985 was found to be
constitutionally valid by the High Court. South Australia’s legislation
doesn’t ban all untruths in advertising, but rather relates to inaccurate
statements of fact (not opinion) found to be untrue
The Australian Greens advocate an amendment to the
Commonwealth Electoral Act to make it an offence to authorise or publish an
advertisement purporting to be a statement of fact when the statement is
inaccurate and misleading to a material extent, similar to legislation
introduced in South Australia.
Recommendations
The Australian Greens recommend that the bills be amended
so to:
1.1
That the age of eligibility to enrol and vote be 16.
1.2
That the AEC be adequately funded to deliver targeted, effective
programs to engage young people in electoral processes, including enrolment.
1.3
That all "party" postal voting applications (PVAs) that have
been sent to voters by political parties or politicians are to be returned
directly from the elector to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) rather
than via the political party campaign office or the office of the politician
1.4
That no written material can be attached to the postal voting
application form sent to electors by persons or organisations, thereby
preventing the distribution of election campaign material by political parties
and politicians via this means.
1.5
That effective legislation to ensure truth in political advertising is
introduced.
Senator
Bob Brown
Leader of the Australian Greens.
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