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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 7 Hansard (17 October) . . Page.. 1698 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

In fact, I am aware of only one poll that was ever conducted on this issue in the ACT. It was a highly dubious poll, having been conducted by Mr Stevenson. That poll - and I have qualified my comments on it, Mr Speaker - found that there was an overwhelming majority in favour of allowing how-to-vote cards. Mr Humphries said in his speech:

The proposed amendments to the current ACT electoral legislation aim similarly to transfer from party machines to the voters ... the power to select candidates.

That is simply untrue, Mr Speaker. The Hare-Clark system, the Robson rotation and the countback method of filling vacancies does that. Those are the mechanisms to give power to the voters and those were all entrenched by the referendum earlier this year. As part of that referendum Mr Humphries could have asked the voters whether they wanted to ban how-to-vote cards, but he did not.

Mr Speaker, another argument that Mr Humphries put forward - - -

Mr Humphries: I could not. It was not part of the Bill we were entrenching. It was not possible.

MS FOLLETT: I am not going to shout over that rabble, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Indeed, you do not have to.

MS FOLLETT: I crave your protection. Another argument that Mr Humphries put forward was that there would be a reduction in wastage of paper used in how-to-vote cards. Again, that is a fallacy. As I pointed out earlier, the proposed ban will result in an increase in the production and distribution of how-to-vote cards before election day. There will be a higher proportion of wastage and absolutely no capacity to reuse how-to-vote cards. I say that simply because parties and candidates will now have to distribute their how-to-vote cards to households, not knowing whether those households are going to vote, not knowing whether anybody lives at an address, not knowing whether people have an interest in following a ticket or not. Mr Speaker, there will be far greater wastage of those papers and absolutely no capacity to recycle them. At the moment, as we all know, there are recycling bins at the polling places. That measure was instituted by the Labor Party, but we will lose the capacity to recycle.

Mr De Domenico: There is a recycling bin at every household.

MS FOLLETT: Also instituted by the Labor Party. Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries also referred to "a possible reduction in campaign costs for parties and candidates". That was another reason that he put forward for his legislation. He at least had the honesty to say "possible", for he well knows that the cost of how-to-vote cards is a very small part of a party's election costs. As I pointed out earlier, individual candidates' costs will go up, not down. The how-to-vote card is a relatively cheap form of advertising, especially when you compare it with paid advertising on television, on radio or in newspapers.

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