Speech by Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig
Cabinet Secretary
Special Minister of State
Check against delivery
Canberra
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Thank you for inviting me here to speak today.
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, and pay my respect to their elders both past and present.
I’m pleased to welcome you to this special event and I’d like to thank the Governor-General, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, who opened today’s proceedings.
I’d also like to acknowledge the Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn and the Shadow Special Minister of State, Senator Ronaldson. There would be few occasions where it would be more appropriate to invite along the Opposition to speak, both as recognition that Government in this country takes place in a parliamentary context, but also as a symbol of the importance we collectively place on the civic debate and dialogue that has made Australia a great society.
Free and fair elections are the basis of a functioning democracy.
For as long as philosophers have debated the essence of a truly democratic system of government, issues around the implementation of democratic processes and systems have challenged societies, and indeed have threatened social cohesion.
The English playwright, Tom Stoppard, once wrote that “It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting”.1
There is a strong element of truth in this, certainly as anyone who has contested a marginal seat, or for that matter a close internal party plebiscite, can attest!
But the truth in that quote is not about the occasional nail-biting results that elections throw up – the truth is that it’s all about the process.
We have seen from elections overseas, the discontent that comes when elections are not perceived to be free and fair by participants in an election process.
To vote is one thing, but we are indeed fortunate in Australia that the underpinnings of our system of representative democracy are sound, and that our democratic processes are deeply entrenched in a national sense of fairness and an egalitarian culture.
The Australian Constitution is the basic document which establishes the major principles of our system of Government – the separation of powers, the relative roles of the executive and the legislature, and the Commonwealth and the states, and, importantly, the role of electors, who directly choose their elected representatives to the national parliament.
But it is the Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1918 that defines a large part of how key aspects of our democratic system work in practice.
The Electoral Act has not been the subject of comprehensive review for 25 years.
It’s the Government’s objective to ensure the Electoral Act appropriately serves the public and government well into the 21st century.
That’s why today I am launching the second part of the Australian Government’s Green Paper process on electoral reform. The purpose of the second Greed Paper is to invite comment on the workings of the Electoral Act and whether its provisions provide us with the best possible framework for the operation of our democratic processes at the national level in a modern Australia.
Today, I will also reflect on the achievements of the Australian Electoral Commission, which was established as an independent statutory authority in 1984, when the last comprehensive review of the Electoral Act took place under the Hawke Government.
The Green Paper that I am launching today is the second part of the Rudd Government’s consultation process on electoral reform.
The first Green Paper – entitled Donations, Funding and Expenditure – was released last December and invited comments in relation to Australia’s electoral funding and disclosure arrangements.
Australia’s political financing system is in urgent need of reform and following public consultation earlier this year, I have been discussing with my colleagues in the Parliament options for reforming campaign financing laws.
Along with the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, I am determined to restore public trust in government and confidence in its processes. This first Green Paper covered important issues, and I have indicated that I have accelerated the Government’s response.
The scope of this second Green Paper – which is entitled Strengthening Australia’s Democracy – is broader and, potentially, more fundamental in terms of implications for the nature of our national polity.
Its purpose is to invite comment on a range of matters relevant to strengthening our national electoral architecture and processes more generally.
It considers issues such as who is entitled to vote, voting systems for the House of Representatives and the Senate, the enrolment of electors and maintenance of the electoral roll, plus arrangements for the casting and counting of votes and determining election results.
Voting is both a right and a duty in this country, yet many of the enrolment provisions serve to place unnecessary barriers on otherwise entitled citizens seeking to perform their civic duty by exercising their right to vote.
The paper also looks at the registration of political parties and the nomination of candidates, and campaigning for elections.
In addition, it examines options for greater harmonisation of electoral laws and systems across the Commonwealth, states and territories.
The right to vote is one of our most cherished and fundamental human rights, and I believe it is our obligation to ensure that we protect and advance this right.
We can maintain the valued characteristics of stability, legitimacy and integrity in our electoral system and question and probe its essential elements to ensure it is meeting our needs in a contemporary environment.
For example, consider the election for our inaugural national parliament in 1901.
It was held over two days – a Friday and a Saturday – not one.
The voting age was 21 years of age.
With the exception of South Australia and Western Australia, women did not vote in the 1901 federal election.
Indigenous Australians were excluded from voting.
Now fortunately, each of these elements has been updated and improved as rights extended to all Australians.
As the beneficiaries of past reforms to our electoral systems, we owe it to future generations to uphold the long term commitments of innovation and reform so we have an electoral system that sits comfortably with the technologies and values of the 21st century.
Throughout the history of our national democracy, people have worked to advance and contemporise the working of our electoral system.
I expect we will have different perspectives on a range of issues flagged in this Green Paper, and that we will have different views about their relative importance, but let me take some time to talk about some issues that I have been contemplating.
For each of the 2004 and 2007 elections, more than 10 per cent of those who were eligible to vote did not cast a formal vote.
At the 2007 federal election, more than 2.3 million Australians who were entitled to vote did not have their votes counted - and our democracy is poorer for it.
There are a range of reasons for this: some people had simply not enrolled; others were enrolled and cast an informal vote, or decided not to vote at all.
I would like to see us working on all fronts to maximise participation.
The right to vote is at the heart of our democratic system of government – it can make the difference to an election outcome.
Look at the 2007 election for example – the seat of McEwen in Victoria was retained by just 31 votes and the seat of Bowman in Queensland was retained by 64 votes.
In the electorates of Robertson in NSW and Solomon in the Northern Territory, both seats changed hands as a result of less than 200 votes.
The fact is, while we consider the right to vote almost sacrosanct, there is a large number of provisions that in reality serve to discourage and disqualify electors.
It is time to explore issues around improving enrolment processes and voting services, taking a different approach to assigning formality, and improving civics education for all Australians, including Indigenous and newly arrived Australians.
The Government has already identified improvements in this area, this year allocating $13 million in the Budget to the Australian Electoral Commission to close the gap in areas of Indigenous disadvantage by improving the electoral enrolment and participation of Indigenous Australians.
Another issue of concern to me is how we should make better use of technology.
In recent years we have seen an increasing trend towards electronic transactions and interactions with a range of service providers, including government.
New and improved technologies encourage online enrolment, online updating of enrolment details, online registration of political parties and candidate nominations and electronic voting and counting.
Other countries have already moved in this area.
Internet voting systems have been used in some instances in the United States, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Estonia.
There are issues of verification, integrity and audit trails that will need to be addressed in any electronic voting system, but I am sure these options should be explored to see if there is a way that ensures the maintenance of public trust in the delivery of election services.
My proposition is this – a 21st century electoral system should take advantage of 21st century technology if it is to work effectively in the service of its citizens.
The Government welcomes broad engagement across the range of matters relating to electoral law to make our electoral processes more relevant to all Australians.
The content of this Green Paper I am launching today has been prepared in consultation with the states and territories, and now I’m seeking the views of the Australian people.
Comments on the Green Paper are invited by 27 November 2009.
In addition to inviting written submissions, an online discussion forum will be open from Monday 9 November to Friday 13 November 2009, providing an opportunity for people to make comments and engage with each other in relation to the matters raised in this paper.
Details about the online discussion forum, and advice on how to register to participate, are available on the website of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, at www.pmc.gov.au.
I’d like to thank all the officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Finance and Deregulation and the Australian Electoral Commission for their work in preparing this paper. I’d also like to thank my predecessor Senator John Faulkner, who initiated the process for electoral reform.
While I’m here today, I’d also like to reflect on the achievements of the Australian Electoral Commission on this, its Silver Jubilee.
The AEC was established as an independent statutory authority on 21 February 1984, following major amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act initiated by the Hawke Government.
A new parliamentary committee, the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform (now the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters) played an important role in encouraging the establishment of the AEC as an independent and impartial electoral administration body.
The AEC replaced the Australian Electoral Office, which had existed from 1973 to 1984, and the previous Commonwealth Electoral Office, which from 1902 to 1973 had formed part of a department of state.
The creation of the AEC was part of the only major rewrite of the Electoral Act since it was put in place in 1918.
Other 1984 reforms included a change in the franchise qualification to Australian citizenship, the introduction of compulsory enrolment and voting by Indigenous Australians and the introduction of public funding of election campaigns and disclosure of political donation and electoral expenditure.
From the time of its creation, the AEC has overseen nine federal elections, 28 by-elections, two supplementary elections, three referenda and a constitutional convention election in 1997.
At the last election it ran 7,732 polling places on election day and 429 early polling centres; printed over 43 million ballot papers and employed over 60,000 people on polling day.
These polling centres include desert encampments, bush settlements, remote islands, overseas embassies, schools and nursing homes.
The logistical challenges are obvious.
The AEC is to be commended for the professional way in which it has delivered elections over vast distances in difficult terrains and conditions and within a restricted timeframe.
As it is to be commended for its public education program which has importantly included tens of thousands of activities on Australia’s electoral system to what must now be millions of school children across Australia.
I mentioned earlier the evidence from some international elections has made me think about how fortunate we are in Australia to have the electoral system that we have.
Since 1984, the AEC has provided international electoral assistance to share its experience in conducting elections in Australia with a range of other countries.
These include critical regional elections in East Timor, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, and move widely from Bangladesh to Botswana, Fiji to Zanzibar.
The AEC has an international reputation for its expertise, and is an important contributor to the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections course, which over 17 years has helped to build vital election management capacity around the world.
The AEC has dealt with many challenges over the last 25 years.
It has seen the introduction of computerised scrutiny of Senate votes, a virtual tally room on election night which provides up-to-the minute results on the AEC website, an automated postal vote issuing system and a computerised electoral roll.
The Government’s ambitions for further electoral reform will challenge the AEC to devise modern, flexible strategies to increase enrolment and electoral participation and to improve the quality of engagement of Australians from all walks of life in an electoral system that maintains its reputation for fairness and integrity.
The success of reforming our electoral system will depend on the level of engagement from the community in our consultative process. I encourage the public to contribute to this discussion by lodging their submissions on the second Green Paper. I can assure you the Government will closely examine all submissions, with the goal on enacting a fairer and more transparent electoral system.
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