Page 3084 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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the commonwealth parliament. We note that people had three days to enrol after this election was called. Apparently something like 143,000 voters, including 3,000 in the ACT, were removed from the electoral roll in the last six months as a result of these changes, so potentially 3,000 people have been disenfranchised by this. Even with the best efforts of the electoral commission, they cannot communicate with everybody.
All in all, this is an important motion. It is a pity we did not debate it earlier—not that it would have made a great deal of difference, but it does indicate that tomorrow’s discussion on amendments to the ACT Electoral Act will be interesting. I do have some amendments to put to that. If we are interested in elections remaining fair, we should make sure that what we say about the federal we are also prepared to follow right through so that we have here the fairest possible electoral legislation.
MR GENTLEMAN (Ginninderra) (5.43): We are a democratic nation that should encourage each and every eligible citizen in Australia to exercise their right to vote for a government that they believe will serve the best interests of themselves, their family and Australia as a whole. While I do agree that ultimately it is the responsibility of the individual to enrol themselves to vote, it is certainly the responsibility of a democratically elected government to do all it possibly can to assist those individuals to exercise their democratic right to vote.
Ms MacDonald mentioned earlier in the debate a point that I wish to reinforce now, which is that Australia does not have a fixed date for federal elections. The Prime Minister of the day is able to call an election without any warning to the people who should elect the government. Why is this an issue? Because when the writs are issued and you are not enrolled, bad luck—you are not allowed to vote for the government that will lead the nation, your very nation.
It is timely that the front page of the Canberra Times today ran a story about the number of voters that were wiped off the electoral roll because of Mr Howard’s amendments. A government should not introduce amendments to an act that restrict people’s ability to vote. It just reinforces the fact that Mr Howard and his team are afraid. And why wouldn’t they be? The polls, which coincidentally Mr Howard has publicly chosen to ignore, show that the Liberals are in trouble and that the more people vote the more chance Mr Howard has of losing his job. It is the poor governance by Mr Howard and his team that has caused so many people to become detached from politics in this country.
Ms MacDonald alluded in her speech to the fact that in the 2004 election 79,000 first-time voters enrolled to vote in the seven days after the election was called—79,000 eligible voters that Mr Howard would have liked to stop from exercising their democratic right to vote, because he is afraid. He is afraid because many of those 79,000 would have heard that the election was being called and thought that now was their chance to do something about it. Before these amendments came in, people had the chance to enrol to have their right to vote. That right has been stripped away. Mr Howard knew he would be in trouble and it had become more important than ever for him to ensure that these amendments came into effect before this coming election. I am certain Mr Howard knew when he called this election that many first-time voters would come running to get their chance to vote for a government with fresh ideas that would look after them.
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