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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4168 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I want to touch on a series of other issues here. One of the most important issues for me is the issue that was raised by Mr Berry, and which he discussed with me for a number of days, and that is the notion that, administratively, we make it more efficient to do pre-poll voting. I think the administration of pre-poll voting will be of far less concern once the election date changes from February to October. At the moment, February is the absolute peak of holiday time. It is when families are getting down to the coast or to other favourite holiday places and are often away for weekends, or are away for the election weekend. They want to ensure that they have done their voting and can go off and enjoy their weekend. It has become a quite common thing for people to say, "Yes, I can pre-poll vote", make the declaration and go off.

Mr Berry's concern is that removing the declaration opens the electoral process to the possibility of more fraud. When I discussed this matter with the Electoral Commissioner he drew my attention to the fact that it has been operating both in the Northern Territory and in Victoria and there has been no evidence of fraud in those places. I think it is appropriate that we proceed with this legislation, as, indeed, I think Mr Berry has decided as well. However, there is an important role for the Assembly committee on electoral matters, when it is established, to monitor that issue as well, because, if there is an increase in fraud associated with pre-poll voting, then, clearly, that cost would be too great.

There is also an issue about closing the roll at 8.00 pm rather than 6.00 pm and allowing pre-poll voting on the Friday before polling day to go to 8.00 pm. It will be interesting to see how our new electoral date fits in with that, because I think this is something we would expect in a daylight saving situation. I cannot remember exactly how daylight saving fits in towards the end of October and how that will fit in with the date of the election, whether we will be into daylight saving and whether this will be appropriate at a different electoral date. Certainly, for this election, 8.00 pm seems fine to me, and I think it will be an appropriate time even if it does not occur in a daylight saving time.

It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that, other than that, the general issues are fairly mechanical. The Bill has been drawn up in a way that is consistent with the approach taken by the Electoral Commissioner's report, and those are the reasons why I will be supporting it.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (8.00), in reply: I am not sure whether the Labor Party wants to contribute to this debate or not. No? Okay.

Ms McRae: Mr Berry has. He has spoken already. You were not listening.

Mr Moore: Mr Berry spoke. He was the first one to rise.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is good. Very well done. I am really impressed. I was not here. That is why I did not know.

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