Page 4835 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.37): Madam Speaker, I would like to comment briefly on Mr Humphries's amendment and then to move my own. As I said in the in-principle stage of the debate, I think that the amendment that Mr Humphries has moved largely addresses the technical problems that existed with his original Bill, particularly those aspects of the original Bill which, it seemed, conflicted with the existing Electoral Act. There remains the concern that I have and that has been expressed to me by both the Attorney-General's Department and the Electoral Commissioner, which is that merely addressing the technical concerns does not address the general problem of the legal effect, or lack of legal effect, that the entrenchment of principles would have. So, I repeat that concern.
Whilst I certainly understand and support the intention here, I again warn members that they must not dismiss too lightly the fact that the Attorney-General's Department has referred to this approach as being "fraught with danger and uncertainty" and that they should take that advice seriously. Nevertheless, Madam Speaker, I indicate that the Government will be supporting Mr Humphries's amendment. I move the following amendment to Mr Humphries's amendment:
After paragraph (b), insert the following paragraph:
"(ba) voting in an election shall be compulsory;".
This amendment to Mr Humphries's amendment to clause 4 addresses my concern that voting should be compulsory and should remain compulsory. By calling for compulsory voting, I mean compulsory voting in the normal, accepted terms; that is, the compulsory voting that exists for Federal elections and that existed for previous Assembly elections, and voting that is compulsory, with the usual very small and specific number of exceptions - for example, for people who are too ill to vote, for people who might be serving in Antarctica, for people who might be in prison interstate and so on. It is a very small number of exceptions for specific circumstances.
MR STEVENSON (4.39): The Chief Minister raised the point that her advice is that the matter is fraught with danger.
Mr Moore: And uncertainty.
MR STEVENSON: Was it "and uncertainty"? Yet she mentions that she is going to support it. I could not quite understand her. If anything in our parliament is fraught with danger and uncertainty and if the next thing we say is, "We are going to agree with it", that sounds - - -
Mr Moore: No; it is just one opinion.
MR STEVENSON: But it is the opinion that the Chief Minister has. That is the point. Let us say that, in the future, something happens that determines that that advice was correct, and we get nothing but uncertainty and danger. Will the Chief Minister then say, "I told you so", or will she say, "I supported it"? I am not sure. I would like that opinion clarified.
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