Page 3087 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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contrary, this year’s enrol to vote week held from 28 May to 3 June was, in fact, the first national enrol to vote week. While in the past the Australian Electoral Commission has run education campaigns, a specific enrol to vote week had never been held before. Due to its success, enrol to vote week will be held in future. Of course, that is only a good thing, given that if these laws remain in place I imagine that we will be seeing people being disenfranchised further and further.
It seems to be Mr Smyth’s habit—and I am sorry that he is not here to actually hear this—when he does not have a substantive argument, to attack the person, which is what he did in the discussion in May. For 10 minutes we heard from Mr Smyth no argument, rather the blah, blah, blah conversation, which basically had a go at me rather than actually looking at the argument that I was putting forward and coming up with alternative proposals.
Mr Smyth made the comment that people would be flocking to get their names on the roll and making sure that they were enrolled; nobody would be disenfranchised; there would not be any problems at all; and there was nothing wrong with the legislation at all. I have to say that if that is what Mr Smyth believes he is not living in the real world. He must be living in playschool Smyth land if he believes that people will be like him and champ at the bit to get their name on the electoral roll. As I said on the day, most people are not interested in politics and they will not be aware of the changes to the legislation, so they will not be making sure that their names are up-to-date on the roll.
While driving in this morning, my husband and I were having the conversation: “Are you sure your name is up-to-date on the roll?” Yesterday I got a thing from Gary Humphries in the mail and my husband Brendan did not. So we both started panicking. If Gary Humphries is sending me something but my husband is not getting something, is it going to be the case that we turn up to the polling booth and I can vote but he cannot?
I think that Mr Gentleman made a good point about young people being particularly at risk because they are inclined to rent rather than own property and are more inclined, therefore, to move more regularly. I think that most of us have been in a situation where we have rented, and the vagaries of renting mean that you do not necessarily get to determine when you are going to move on to another property. Let us face it, when you are a young person you are not necessarily focused on making sure your name is on the electoral roll. So I think there is a real concern there.
In conclusion, as I said in May, I believe that these law changes were completely unnecessary and were brought in by a government that will do anything to win the election. We know the Howard government is in a desperate position. Mr Howard and his colleagues appear more than happy to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible voters to give them an advantage in the election. But I am hopeful that not just Canberrans but all Australians have heard the comments and have got their names on the roll so that they can demonstrate their right to vote for the people that they believe will best represent them. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
Motion agreed to.
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