Bills Digest No. 2 2002-03
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Roll Integrity and
Other Measures) Bill 2002
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Passage History
Electoral and Referendum Amendment
(Roll Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2002
Date Introduced:
14 March 2002
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Special Minister for
State
Commencement:
Except as otherwise
indicated in the Main Provisions section of this Digest, Royal
Assent.
Purpose
To:
-
- restrict the eligibility of certain prisoners to vote
-
- provide for an earlier closing of applications for enrolment
and the electoral roll
-
- increase the thresholds applying under the disclosure
rules
-
- perform similar changes in laws relating to referendums,
and
-
- tighten the requirements relating to the address details for
enrolment.
Since 1983 the conduct of each general election
has been examined by a Joint Standing Committee with the aim of
recommending improvements in the electoral process. Following the
1998 general election a review was conducted by the Joint Standing
Committee on Electoral Matters, which released its report, entitled
The 1998 Federal Election (the Report), in June 2000. The
Report contained minority reports from the ALP and Australian
Democrat members of the Committee, although both were in agreement
with the majority of the recommendations of the Committee. The ALP
minority report deals with specific recommendations of the majority
while that of the Australian Democrats deals with more general
principles.
The Government's response to the Report was
tabled on 1 March 2001 and specifically or in principle, supported
49 of the 57 recommendations of the majority report, with the
unsupported recommendations relating to technical matters, such as
a proposed requirement for pre-poll voters to indicate their reason
for such a vote and marking of postal votes. In addition to the
matters contained in the Report, the Government's response
indicated that it also wished to pursue reforms which:
-
- would deny the right to vote for all prisoners (currently
prisoners serving a sentence of 5 years or more are denied the
right to vote), and
-
- review penalties for breaches of electoral law and increase
penalties for multiple voting.(1)
Many of the non-controversial changes
recommended by the Report where implemented by the Electoral
and Referendum Amendment Act 2001, while the more contentious
recommendations were left to a later date and some are included in
this Bill, including:
-
- The electoral Roll for new voters be closed on the day of the
issue of the writs for the election and 3 days later for enrolled
voters wishing to change their address. Currently section 155 of
the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Principal Act)
provides a period of 7 days. The Report notes that a similar
recommendation was contained in the report on the 1996 election and
when introduced in legislation was rejected by the Senate. The
recommendation was based on the inability of the Australian
Electoral Commission (AEC) to verify the number of enrolment forms
received under the current rules (351 913 enrolment forms for new
voters, changes of address and other reasons were received by the
AEC between the issue of writs and the close of rolls prior to the
1998 election).(2) The recommendation is opposed in the
ALP minority report on the basis that it will disenfranchise
voters, particularly those enrolling for the first
time.(3) The Australian Democrats reserved their
position on this recommendation.(4)
-
- The threshold above which donations must be disclosed by
recipients and donors be increased from $1500 to $3000. Currently,
political parties must disclose the name of a donor where a
contribution is $1500 or more (so that multiple contributions below
this amount need not be declared), while donors must make a
declaration where the sum of their contributions equals or exceeds
this amount. The Report recommends that the level of donations in
both cases be increased to $3000, while noting that previous
amendments to increase these amounts to $5000 for political party
disclosure and $10 000 for individual disclosure were defeated in
the Senate.(5) The recommendations are largely based on
a reduced administrative burden on the parties involved. (In
relation to the individual disclosure amount the Report states:
'This proposal would have the advantage of minimising the
duplication and easing the burden on small donors, while ensuring
the disclosure of all donations above $1500 through party
disclosure returns.' This appears to contradict the recommendation
elsewhere in the Report that the disclosure level for political
parties be raised from $1500 to $3000.(6)) The
recommendations are opposed in the ALP minority report, principally
on the basis that their implementation would 'diminish the
transparency of the [current] disclosure laws.'(7) The
Australian Democrats minority report is in favour of a stricter
disclosure regime, particularly where another entity is interposed
between the donor and the political party which ultimately receives
the donation.(8)
The Bill will also implement the additional
matters indicated in the government s response to the Report,
including removing the right to vote for all full time prisoners
and increasing the penalty for intentional multiple voting. The
question of voting rights for prisoners was discussed in the
Report, which noted that the matter has had a changing history.
Following the 1993 election an amendment was included to extend the
right to vote to all prisoners (the measure was withdrawn), while
in 1999 an amendment to exclude prisoners from voting was defeated
in the Senate. The Report noted that the majority of the Committee
agreed with the 1993 proposal, which had been a recommendation of a
previous Committee, but stated that it believes that the current
legislation should stand until there is sufficient and widespread
public support for a change. (9)
While the question of the integrity of the
electoral roll has recently received much attention in respect of
pre-selection of political candidates where enrolment is a
condition for membership of a party, a recent report by the
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) into the integrity of the
roll found:
The AEC does not set targets for, nor measure or
report on, the accuracy of the electoral roll. The electoral roll
changes continuously. At any one time it will contain inaccurate
records, where voters have recently changed address, gone overseas
or died, and the AEC has not yet been advised of the change, nor
identified it through the CRU.
Despite these circumstances, the audit found a
high degree of accuracy in electoral roll data. ANAO data-matching
of name and date of birth against Medicare and other sources
achieved a significant match of over 96 per cent.
To ensure that voters are registered in their
correct electoral Division, the AEC maintains an up-to-date address
register. ANAO data-matching with Medicare only confirmed the
accuracy of the names and date of birth of those on the roll. The
more uneven time frames of client transactions with Medicare meant
that matching roll addresses and Medicare addresses would be of
little value. Consequently this review was not attempted. The ANAO
noted that, where the AEC routinely matches its address register
with Australia Post, Centrelink and State data, the register proves
to be consistently accurate and reliable.(10)
On 14 June 2002 the Joint Standing Committee on
Electoral Matters announced that it would conduct a follow-up
inquiry into the ANAO report and that this report was due to be
tabled in the week beginning 26 August 2002.(11)
The Electoral and Referendum Amendment Bill (No.
2) 2001 contained many of the measures as this Bill but lapsed when
Parliament was prorogued for the 2001 general election and before
it was debated in either chamber.
Items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1
will amend section 93 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act
1918 (the Principal Act) to provide that a person who is
serving a sentence of full-time imprisonment will not be eligible
to vote. In related moves, item 6 will repeal
section 96A of the Principal Act which deals with the enrolment of
prisoners and item 24 will repeal section 226A
which deals with mobile booths for prisons.
Section 102 of the Principal Act deals with how
a general application for enrolment is to be treated. Item
8 will amend subsection 102(4) to provide that a name is
not to be included on the Roll if the claim for enrolment is
received:
-
- for a claimant who had previously been enrolled, at or after 8
p.m. on the date the Roll closes, or
-
- for other claimants, at or after 6 p.m. on the date of the
issue of the writs.
Section 94A of the Principal Act deals with the
enrolment of electors from outside Australia. A new
subsection 94A(4) will be substituted into the Principal
Act to provide that applications received after 6 p.m. on the date
of the issue of writs for an election are not to be added to the
Roll until after the close of polling for the relevant election
(item 3).
Where a spouse or child of an overseas voter
becomes eligible to vote in an Australian election (usually by
satisfying age requirements), section 95 of the Principal Act
provides that their name is to be added to the Roll if the
application is received before 8 p.m. on the day the Roll closes.
Item 4 will amend subsection 95(4) to provide that
the application must be received before 6 p.m. on the date of issue
of the writs.
Section 96 of the Principal Act deals with the
enrolment of itinerant voters and will be amended by item
5 to provide that applications received after 6 p.m. on
the date of the issue of writs for an election are not to be added
to the Roll until after the close of polling for the relevant
election.
Commencement: Other than item
3, which will commence on Royal Assent, on a day fixed by
Proclamation (clause 2).
The Roll currently closes 7 days after the issue
of the writ for an election (section 155 of the Principal Act).
Items 11 and 12 will amend section 155 to provide
that the Roll is to close 3 working days after the issue of the
writ, with working days being defined as excluding Saturdays,
Sundays and a public holiday in any State or Territory. This will
also apply to new voters.
Commencement: On a day fixed by
Proclamation (clause 2).
Section 305B of the Principal Act provides that
a person must make a return to the Electoral Commission where they
make a gift/s to a registered political party or a State branch of
such a party where the gifts total $1500 or more. Item
27 proposes to increase this amount to $3000. The return
must specify any gift/s the donor received that were used to make
the contribution/s of $1500 or more where the gifts to the donor
where $1000 or more. Items 28 and 29 propose to
increase both of these limits to $3000.
Item 30 provides that the above
amendments are to apply to the financial year during which the
amendments commence and all later financial years.
Subsection 306(1) of the Principal Act prohibits
a political party or a branch of a political party from receiving a
gift of $1000 or more unless the name and address of the giver are
known. Item 31 proposes to increase the $1000
threshold to $3000.
Political parties, branches, candidates and
people operating on their behalf are not to receive a loan of $1500
or more from a person or entity other than a financial institution
unless certain information is recorded (section 306A).
Items 32 and 33 propose to increase the threshold
to $3000.
Registered political parties are required to
provide an annual return listing details of certain amounts
received, including details of amounts from a source that equal or
exceed $1500 in a year (section 314AC). Item 34
proposes to increase this amount to $3000. As with returns to be
made by a person making a gift, item 35 provides
that the above amendments are to apply to the financial year during
which the amendment commences and all later financial years.
Details of debts of $1500 or more incurred by a political party are
required to be included in the annual return (section 314AE).
Item 36 proposes to increase the threshold to
$3000 and again the amendment will apply to the financial year in
which the item commences and later years (item
37).
Subsection 339(1B) of the Principal Act makes it
an offence to vote more than once in an election, with a maximum
penalty of 10 penalty units (the Crimes Act 1914 provides
that a penalty unit is $110). Item 42 will insert
a new subsection 339(1B) which will introduce a
new offence of intentionally voting more than once in an election
with a maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment and/or a fine of
60 penalty units.
The Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act
1984 is proposed to be amended to reflect the above changes to
the Principal Act in relation to enrolment dates, the penalties for
intentionally voting more than once in a referendum and the
exclusion of prisoners voting in referendums (items 44 to
60). The commencement dates of the various measures
reflect those above.
The amendments contained in Schedule
2 of the Bill will insert a requirement that an enrolled
person is actually living at the address for which they are
enrolled or have applied to be enrolled for. This will be achieved
by a number of amendments to the Principal Act requiring people to
live at the address for which they seek enrolment or are
enrolled.
Proposed subsection 114(1B)
will provide a specific right for a person who is enrolled in a
subdivision to object to the enrolment of another in the
subdivision on the grounds that the person does not live at the
address for which they are enrolled and have not done so for at
least a month. Similarly, proposed subsection
114(4) provides for the Divisional Returning Officer (DRO)
for a subdivision to object to the enrolment of a person if there
are reasonable grounds for believing that they have not lived at
the address for which they are enrolled for at least a month
(items 29 and 30). If the DRO is satisfied that
the grounds for objection have been satisfied the voter s name must
be removed from the Roll (proposed subsection
118(4) which will be inserted by item
34). Antarctic voters are excluded from these
provisions.
Item 37 contains transitional
provisions, the most important of which provides that if a person
is enrolled at a particular address at the commencement of the Bill
they will be deemed to be living at that address for the purpose of
these amendments.
-
- Government Response to the Joint Standing Committee, tabled 1
March 2001, p. 28.
- Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, The 1998
Federal Election, p. 15.
- ibid., p. 155.
- ibid., p. 163.
- ibid., pp. 127 129.
- ibid, recommendations 44 and 45.
- ibid., pp. 158&9.
- ibid., pp. 173 176.
- ibid., pp. 89&90.
- Australian National Audit Office, Report 2001-02 No. 42.
Integrity of the Electoral Roll, points 30 32.
- Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Media Alert, 14
June 2002.
Chris Field
2 August 2002
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2002
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