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Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2013

Introduced into the House of Representatives on 21 March 2013

Portfolio: Special Minister of State

Overview

1.97      This bill amends the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984:

• to require the Australian Electoral Commission to only send a Yes/No referendum pamphlet to each residential address on the electoral roll rather than to each elector; and
• to temporarily suspend the limit on Commonwealth spending on referendum proposals for the period from when the amendment commences until midnight of polling day for the general election of the House of Representatives in 2013.

1.98      The bill implements the government's response to particular recommendations in the December 2009 report of the then House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs' on the machinery of referendums entitled ‘A Time for Change: Yes/No?’.

Compatibility with human rights

1.99      The bill is accompanied by a self-contained statement of compatibility which concludes that the bill is compatible with the right to take part in public affairs in article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Right to take part in public affairs

1.100         Article 25 of ICCPR guarantees the right of citizens to participate in government directly or through their elected representatives. The UN Human Rights Committee has said that citizens not only directly participate in the conduct of public affairs when they are elected or hold executive office:

Citizens also participate directly in the conduct of public affairs when they choose or change their constitution or decide public issues through a referendum or other electoral process conducted...[1]

1.101         The statement of compatibility argues that the proposed change from every elector being sent a Yes/No referendum pamphlet to providing only one pamphlet for each residential address is compatible with article 25 of the ICCPR:

 [T]he amendments in this Bill which change the approach for sending Yes/No pamphlets to Australian citizens do not impact on any human rights.  Each Australian citizen will be able to read the arguments for and against changing the constitution as before, except instead of a pamphlet being addressed to each “elector” it will be sent to an address.

It is also important to note that, as allowed for by subsection 11(4) of the Referendum Act, the Australian Electoral Commission will translate the Yes/No pamphlet into languages other than English and prepare the pamphlet in accessible formats on the Commission’s website.  Further, the Australian Electoral Commission has the capacity to identify addresses where numerous electors are enrolled, such as nursing homes, and provide multiple copies of the Yes/No pamphlet to these facilities.

1.102        In light of the justificatory material provided in the statement of compatibility, the committee considers that these measures do not appear to be inconsistent with article 25 of the ICCPR.

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