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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 7 Hansard (17 October) . . Page.. 1705 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

It is a sight easier to get a few dozen people to stand around polling booths and hand out how-to-vote cards. It is also easier to stick a table at a polling booth and put some how-to-vote cards on it if you do not have many resources. This move sets out to prevent that from happening. When it comes to election day, a person who has not been able to elbow us out of the way to get his or her face on television will not be able to stick a few how-to-vote cards around all the polling booths. That is just unfair. Somebody could buy a few card tables or, as I have seen happen during various elections, sit a few how-to-vote cards on the fence under a rock.

Mr Humphries: That is really effective!

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries says, "It is not very effective". I agree. It is not the way to win elections, but it is the right of candidates to be able to have their how-to-vote cards, with a bit of information on them, at polling booths. The Liberals and the Independents are trying to block people from doing that. That is downright unfair.

Mr Kaine drew attention to the look of despair or some other look that people might have on their faces when people thrust how-to-vote cards at them, but there are - - -

MR SPEAKER: I am equally terrified, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: You can always say no. I have never seen anybody wrestled to the ground and have the thing stuffed in their mouth. The fact of the matter is that some people say no, and people respect that. There are certain rules which prevent you from handing out information too close to the door of the polling place anyway. I think that what Mr Kaine said is a whole lot of nonsense.

The big issue for the community to understand is that this Bill is a breach of the fundamental right to have access to this information. It is a restriction on the freedom of speech. There is no question about that, in my mind. It is unfair, for the reasons that I explained; but, most importantly, the community ought to be very sceptical about this Bill, because it will protect the incumbents and make sure that - - -

Mrs Carnell: How do you work that out?

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell comes in here and says, "How do you work that out?". If she had been here for the rest of the debate, she might have been able to work it out herself; but just to help her out I will explain it to her. I will repeat it, and I hope that I am not taken to task for making repetitive comments, Mr Speaker. People who are not as well off as Mrs Carnell and who cannot elbow people like her off the television to get their face on it will find it very difficult to make themselves known. If they run as candidates they should have the opportunity to distribute election material at the polling place. You are trying to stop them from doing that. I think that is downright unfair, but that is not something that I would not expect from you lot. Fairness was not something you promised in the last election campaign - or did you promise it? Yes, you probably did. You promised most other things.

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