Page 1241 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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electoral roll in Queensland. You can hear the objections from those who are afraid of exposure.
If you want to cast a provisional vote, you will now have to provide proof of identity. Why is that unfair? I have heard no logical argument about how that will disenfranchise someone. How is that unfair? The period allowed for the closure of the roll has been changed. Periods of allowance change all the time. That will allow the electoral commission more time to prepare itself for the election, given that there are already penalties in the act for not being enrolled or not having changed your address. I have not heard a concrete argument from those opposite that says that it will do anything at all concretely to undermine democracy, and I will not, because this is just standard fear-mongering.
Mr Corbell: Seventy-nine thousand electors. A quarter of a million electors updated their details.
MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell talks about 79,000 new voters. They are out there. They are in the schools this week, Mr Corbell. We have just had a brochure put in letterboxes by the ACT government and it is really funny. It speaks of a new curriculum framework for ACT schools and essential learning achievements. What is No 21? What should students learn in the new curriculum framework for ACT schools under the essential learning achievements? No 21 states, “Understands and values what it means to be a citizen within a democracy.”
If they understand and value what it means to be a citizen in a democracy, surely those kids would have gone out and enrolled anyway. They would have done it. I could not wait to enrol. I know my kids could not wait to enrol. I know lots of people who could not. But we have addressed that fear, an unfounded fear. We cite the numbers. We throw the numbers around here. We are very easy on the numbers.
For the first time, we have a federal government which is out there actively encouraging and helping people to enrol to vote. It is out there actively helping and encouraging them, getting in early, early intervention, making sure that people get on the roll, making sure that people understand their obligation, telling people how they can participate, challenging, asking people to get it right and get it right now. But no, that is not good enough. They get out the lexicon and go back to the old words “may”, “could”, “potential” and “likely.” If you have not got an argument, if you cannot actually speak to the issue, you go for the fear. Voting is a central process in our democratic system of government and it should be kept free of fraud. It must be kept free of fraud, and that is what the federal government is doing.
There have been some changes. Electoral advertising has to be authorised in line with all other types of advertising. I am not sure how you can object to that. How can you object to having all forms of advertising treated equally? We have heard from the Chief Minister so many times about equity, equality and how we want things to be equal. One of the things that the act as it is now does is to make sure that electoral advertising has to be authorised in line with all other types of advertising. Are we against that part as well? Are we going to object to electronic advertising being treated in a different way? Are we? No, they are mute on that side. Ms MacDonald raised the question of the threshold being lifted to $10,000. For somebody in a party
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