Mr SLIPPER (10:08 AM) —I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

This bill contains a number of electoral reforms to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984. These reforms arise out of the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on the conduct of the 1996 federal election, which was tabled on 16 June 1997. Many of the recommendations of the report of the electoral matters committee have been dealt with in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment Bill 1997, which received royal assent on 14 July 1998. The items of that bill were largely technical in nature and were not considered contentious.

The amendments in the bill which I introduce today relate to the more substantive reform issues considered by the electoral matters committee, including that matter of electoral fraud. Many of you would be aware that this bill was introduced into the Senate during the 1998 winter sittings. The bill was then referred to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, which tabled its report on the bill in the Senate on 23 June 1998. The majority committee recommended that the bill be passed without amendment. However, the bill was not debated before the parliament was dissolved for the 1998 federal election.

There is increasing disquiet in sections of the community about the potential for electoral fraud and continuing scepticism regarding the integrity of the electoral roll as the current enrolment process is open to abuse. The government agrees with the electoral matters committee when it states:

. . . that it is unacceptable that the most fundamental transaction between a citizen and the government—[that is] the act of choosing the government at a democratic election—is subject to a far lower level of security than such lesser transactions as opening a bank account, applying for a passport, applying for a driver's licence or registering for social security benefits, to name but a few.

Under the act in its present form, it is remarkably easy to place on the roll a dead person's name, a false name, a non-citizen, or a person who is not yet 18. In addition, the enrolment could have a fake or false address.

Maintaining the confidence of all Australians in the integrity of our electoral system is essential. Accordingly, this bill introduces some of the recommendations of the electoral matters committee report with respect to addressing the potential for electoral fraud. The amendments relating to enrolment issues will provide for an upgraded witnessing requirement, whereby the witness must be an elector and be in a prescribed class of persons. Regulations will be made to provide for an extensive list of categories of people who will be able to witness a claim for enrolment. It will specify provisions for those electors who are unable to find a witness in the prescribed list.

A person who is enrolling for the first time must have his or her identity verified before he or she is enrolled. A person who claims in an enrolment application to be an Australian citizen because of a grant of Australian citizenship under the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 must have his or her citizenship verified before he or she may be enrolled. The methods of verification are to be prescribed by regulation. An elector must notify a change of address within one month of taking up residence at his or her new address.

The regulations specifying the method of verification of identity for first-time enrollees will require the applicant to produce, at the time of application, at least one original form of proof of identity documentation. The form of documentation will depend on the circumstances of the applicant but may include an Australian birth certificate, passport or photographic driver's licence. It is possible that some applicants will not be in a position to produce an original form of identity document. In such cases, the regulations will provide for, say, a written reference to be produced.

Original documentation will be able to be posted to a divisional returning officer, DRO, or to an Australian electoral officer, AEO, with the enrolment application. The documents will be checked and then returned by mail to the applicant. Alternatively, the applicant may present the original documents at an office of a DRO or AEO with the application. The documents will then be checked at that time and handed back to the applicant. To provide, however, a wider facility for lodgement of original documents and enrolment applications by hand so that many applicants need not part with original documents, especially those presenting a drivers licence, a new provision will allow prescribed persons to receive enrolment applications and, where necessary, sight and verify the lodgement of original identity documents, enabling the documents to be handed back to the applicant.

The lodgement of enrolment applications with a prescribed person will only be by hand; the applications will not be able to be posted to a prescribed person. Prescribed persons will be selected on the basis of their accessibility to the public, and, subject to negotiation, may include government or semi-government organisations, such as post offices. Prescribed persons will not verify or determine entitlement to enrolment. However, they would be required to note on applications the time of their receipt and forward them to the Australian Electoral Commission, AEC, as directed. In the case of first-time enrolment applicants, the prescribed person would also be required to verify the lodgement of an original form of identity document and note on the application that the document was lodged. That person would then hand back the original to the applicant.

In addition to the increased requirements with respect to the enrolment processes, the government proposes, in line with the recommendation of the electoral matters committee, to close the electoral roll on the day that the writ is issued for new electors while still allowing three working days following the issue of writs for existing electors to change their enrolment details. As the electoral matters committee reported:

. . . at the election some 428,000 transactions (new and updated enrolments) were processed from the day the writs were issued. The AEC freely admits that detailed checking, before the election, of these late enrolments—particularly the new enrolments—is virtually impossible. Consequently, the seven-day period is often called into question by those concerned about the integrity of the rolls.

New enrolments should cease on the day the writ is issued, while electors already on the roll should be given three days in which to notify changes of address. Suggestions that such measures would lead to less accurate rolls are unfounded—the AEC should extensively advertise the new requirements, and should move as quickly as possible to a continuous roll review based on effective data-matching and flexible habitation reviews.

New provisions will also ensure that an enrolment application lodged with a prescribed person before the close of the rolls for an election will satisfy the requirement for the receipt of the application by a DRO or AEO before the close of the rolls—that is, the application can be processed and, if accepted by the AEC, the applicant can be added to the roll for the election.

Regulations for verification of citizenship will take the form of the enrolment applicant being required to provide either his or her citizenship number or the date of conferral of citizenship on the application and for the AEC to verify with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs that the applicant is in fact an Australian citizen. It is possible that some applicants in this category will not be able to produce either a citizenship number or date of conferral, in which case the AEC will be required to make whatever inquiries of the applicant and the department are necessary to verify citizenship.

Amendments to improve the integrity of the election process include allowing only the presiding officer of a polling place to mark, fold and deposit the ballot paper of those voters who require assistance with voting. Scrutineers will also be permitted to witness the assistance being provided, and the voter may also nominate a person to witness the process. Other important amendments will:

. repeal the entitlement of prisoners to be enrolled or to vote. The government agrees with the electoral matters committee that those who disregard the laws to a degree sufficient to warrant imprisonment should not expect to retain the franchise;

. allow for the provision of date of birth and salutation details of electors to members, senators and registered political parties and also enable the use of the elector details by these people and organisations for electoral research purposes. The AEC will commence collecting salutation details on enrolment forms when the amendments are enacted;

. increase the penalty for the unauthorised disclosure of elector data or for its commercial use to 100 penalty units—that is, $11,000;

. allow for the preliminary scrutiny of declaration votes to commence on the Monday before polling day. However, no declaration envelopes will be opened before the close of polling, and any envelopes rejected at the preliminary scrutiny will not be rechecked until after the close of the poll;

. require donors to political parties to provide a return to the AEC if the sum of donations to a party in a financial year by the donor is $10,000 or more. This is an increase from $1,500;

. require political parties to furnish a return identifying donors to the party where the sum of the donations from the donor in a financial year is $5,000 or more. This is an increase from $1,500; and

. require only those donations which are $1,500 or more to be counted in the sum of donations from a donor to a political party. This is an increase from $500.

The government is concerned to ensure that all Australians have the utmost confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the electoral roll. The measures proposed in this bill will improve enrolment procedures without unduly inhibiting the opportunity for all adult Australian citizens to participate in the electoral process. I commend the bill to the House. I also present the explanatory memorandum to this bill.

Debate (on motion by Mr Swan) adjourned.