Mr SLIPPER (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) (10:45 AM) —I move government amendment No. 2:

Schedule 2—Registration of political parties

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

(1) If:

(2) For the purposes of subitem (1), an application is finally determined when the application, and any appeals arising out of it, have been finally determined or otherwise disposed of.

This amendment contains measures which will require all political parties applying for registration from 3 October 2000 to prove they have 500 members. It provides that currently registered parliamentary parties retain their registration as long as they have a party member in federal parliament, and it provides that currently registered parliamentary parties which are registered on the basis that they have a party member in a state or territory legislature have a period of six months from 3 October 2000 in which to satisfy the Australian Electoral Commission that they have 500 members or be deregistered. The amendment addresses government and broader public concerns that political party registration provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 could be open to exploitation where members of parliament use their parliamentary membership to register political parties for federal election purposes even where these parties do not have a membership base. The amendment also provides that an application for registration of a political party will be refused if the proposed name of the party applying for registration is the name, abbreviation or acronym—or closely resembles the name, abbreviation or acronym—of an existing parliamentary party, registered party or certain parties which stood candidates under their party names at state or territory elections in the preceding five years.

In future, the only basis for registration of an eligible political party will be that it has 500 members. The amendment will allow currently registered parliamentary parties which have a federal member of parliament to continue their registration while they continue to have a federal member or senator. For currently registered parliamentary parties with a nominated member from a state parliament or a territory legislative assembly, a transition period of six months from 3 October this year will be provided to allow the parties to prove that they are still entitled to be registered. Currently eligible political parties registered on a parliamentary party basis who fail to meet the amended eligibility provisions by the end of the six-month transition period will be deregistered. Current applicant parties will also face deregistration under the same terms if their applications are on the basis of having a member who is a member of a state or territory legislature.

There are suggestions that the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 be amended to require that two or more parties cannot rely on the same members for registration purposes and that parties be audited annually to check if they still have the required membership. This would result in parties having to disclose their membership lists to the Australian Electoral Commission. This is not something that has ever been intended by the legislation. It would raise substantial issues of personal privacy, since such details would also need to be publicly available, given the ability under the legislation to object to party registration. It would also require a level of resources that the Australian Electoral Commission does not currently have available. It would be fair to say that neither side of politics envisaged that anyone would take advantage of this until now. Once the government became aware that the provisions regarding the registration of political parties were being exploited, we acted swiftly to close the loophole. There has been much media comment on the fact that the registration provisions of the Electoral Act are being used for purely opportunistic purposes, not only for political gain but also for financial gain. In the debate which has just concluded, it was obvious that very many members share the concern of the government. Genuine political parties will have no problems in complying with these registration requirements, which will protect and strengthen the integrity of the electoral system.

Quite frankly, it is reasonable to expect that any new political party wanting to register federally be required to demonstrate to the Australian Electoral Commission that it has a reasonable level of support in the community. So-called phantom political parties have the potential to damage the faith of the public in our democratic political system, not to mention the financial cost they pose to the community in terms of public funding and the cost to the AEC of registration and administration. The government does not wish to disenfranchise legitimate party registrations, but it is only fair to the community that these parties fulfil certain criteria to show that they are indeed serious and are indeed real parties. With respect to this particular matter, it is only fair to acknowledge the cooperation of the opposition, who, I understand, will be supporting this government amendment. It is important to have rolls with integrity and our amendment ensures that.