Page 1009 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
a significant risk by voting at more than one booth in the Tuggeranong Valley, if they were able to travel to Belconnen and vote in lots of places in Belconnen the risk might be slightly less. I suggest that there is a potential problem which needs to be addressed, but I think Mr Stevenson's solution is a sledge-hammer to crack what is obviously, at present, a very small nut indeed.
MS SZUTY (10.40): Madam Speaker, I also wish to indicate to the Assembly that I will not be supporting Mr Stevenson's amendment. I believe again that this issue comes down to a question of balance. It is a balance between the ease of the voting process for the electors of the ACT and the likelihood of fraud occurring through multiple voting in various electorates. I was thinking about the ease of the voting process for people, and I noted that Mr Stevenson's amendment refers to the polling booth nearest the elector's address. We do not always set out from our home address on polling day to vote. There are all sorts of situations and lifestyles that people adopt which may mean that they vote near their place of work, or near a friend's house that they happen to be visiting on the day. They may vote at a particular booth for any one of a number of reasons. For the Assembly's first election under the Hare-Clark electoral system with Robson rotation, I think we need to facilitate the process for voters as much as possible. I will be opposing Mr Stevenson's amendment.
MR STEVENSON (10.42): There are many people who did not believe in life after death. Let us consider some of the practices that are going on in Australia regarding voting. One of the major problems if someone votes at a number of polling booths is that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to correct that vote. Even if you catch the person, even if you find out that the person's name had been crossed off at every polling booth in the ACT, there is nothing that you can do to correct the fraudulent votes. People would not have to vote at the polling booth nearest their home; they could vote there or they could put in a postal vote. Later on those fraudulent votes could be removed, because they would have been put in an envelope, not in the ballot-box. Once they are in the ballot-box, it is all over; there is nothing you can do about it.
There are some groups in the ACT or Australia that conscientiously do not vote. People in these groups are usually sent, election after election, notices from the Electoral Commission asking why they did not vote. This happened to Jehovah Witnesses in one particular electorate, not the ACT, election after election. But after one election it did not happen. It is interesting to know why they did not get their fail-to-vote notice. The suggestion was that they did vote, but they did not.
The Chief Minister mentioned earlier that I would make it harder for the voters, and she wondered why. That is a nonsense, of course. I would not make it harder for voters. We also hear about the process being inconvenient. I would make it more inconvenient for people who try to rort the system. I would make it harder for them. Most people in Canberra feel the same way. Why do you not ask them?
Amendment negatived.
Debate (on motion by Ms Follett) adjourned.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .