Mr SLIPPER (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) (9:39 AM) —I move:

This bill contains technical amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Electoral Act) and the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 arising from the government supported recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters' (JSCEM) report entitled `The 1998 Federal Election'.

The government response to the JSCEM report was tabled on 1 March 2001.

The most notable amendments include those which will:

· allow persons who are enrolling or voting from overseas to provide a certified copy of particular sections of their current passport as verification of their identity in the case where they cannot find an authorised witness;

· provide that Divisional Returning Officers (DROs) and Australian Electoral Officers (AEOs) may reject applications for enrolment from persons who have changed their names to something `inappropriate'—that is, fictitious, frivolous, offensive, obscene or assumed for an ulterior purpose—including those which are designed to bring the electoral system into disrepute or which may undermine the respect for and community standing of government departments and agencies, such as the Family Court, or well known private organisations and businesses, such as registered political parties. However, there will be appeal rights against a decision to reject such a name.

· allow for the provision of electronic lists of postal vote applicants to candidates and registered political parties following a general election and to members of the House of Representatives (HOR), Senators and registered political parties following a referendum held separately to a general election;

· allow for the amendment or withdrawal of a Group Voting Ticket (GVT) or Individual Voting Ticket (IVT) statement up until the closing time for lodgement of such statements;

· provide that Senate nomination deposits are to be returned to the person who paid the deposit;

· allow, prior to the close of nominations, for the substitution of a candidate in a bulk nomination, where a candidate who was part of that bulk nomination withdraws their consent, or dies prior to the close of nominations;

· provide that where a person has cast multiple declaration votes, and these are detected at the preliminary scrutiny, that only one of the votes will be admitted to the further scrutiny;

· provide that all ballot papers are to be initialled in a circle placed on the front top of the ballot paper;

· allow for the display of GVT and IVT information in pamphlet form as well as in poster form;

· provide that the registered abbreviation of a political party name may be only an acronym or a shortened version of the party name; and

· provide the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) with a power to review the continuing eligibility of registered political parties.

It should be noted that these amendments are technical in nature and the recommendations upon which they are based were supported by all members of the JSCEM. Accordingly, I would hope that the bill will be given a timely passage.

This will allow the AEC sufficient time to implement the amendments prior to the next federal election.

The `reform' measures arising from the government supported recommendations of the JSCEM report will be included in another bill to be introduced at a later stage.

I commend the bill to the House and present the explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Mr Bevis) adjourned.