Senator MURRAY (4:12 PM) —I rise to address the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into the integrity of the electoral roll, which itself is a review of the Auditor-General's report No. 42 of 2001-02. I was one of those who promoted audit report No. 42, being a member of both the Joint Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Audit and the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. My attention to this technique had been attracted by the audit report on taxpayer file numbers. It occurred to me that it was important to do the same sort of report on the electoral roll and I was surprised to discover that the electoral roll had never before been audited in this manner by the Auditor-General. What is apparent from the JSCEM's report, of course, is that the JSCEM now believes that the Auditor-General should do such an audit periodically. That is a good outcome from the inquiry. We look forward to a follow-up audit.

In the meantime, the AEC have a number of recommendations to comply with. There are 12 recommendations from audit report No. 42 and a further 14 to comply with with respect to this report from the JSCEM. All of these may result in an additional call for funds to resource additional work by the AEC. We should always bear in mind that the AEC are telling us currently that they are short of money—there is no reason to believe that that is not the case—and they may need additional funding to improve their performance in terms of the sorts of submissions they have made to the committee.

It is critical that public confidence in the electoral roll remain high, and that means not only keeping the public happy but also keeping the states happy, because of the joint federal-state arrangements. The integrity of the electoral roll is such that it has often been put under attack. The virtue of even unsubstantiated attacks and assertions is that it helps keep everyone on their toes. Bear in mind that it is in the great self-interest of all political parties and all candidates to have a roll with integrity. But I should stress that in all the time that I have been on the JSCEM I have never seen evidence of any level of fraud which would result in the alteration of either a House of Representatives or a Senate outcome. In fact, the 2001 User friendly, not abuser friendly report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the integrity of the electoral roll pretty well indicated that the roll was in good shape, but it recognised that the roll needed a number of improvements to maximise the faith we should have in it.

The part played in these inquiries by a diligent secretariat, a strong chair and a cooperative cross-party committee should never be underestimated. These committee inquiries—and the hearings are public—are very important in keeping the AEC accountable and under scrutiny, and in ensuring that members of the public and organisations who are concerned about our democracy are able to express their views. I welcome this report. I look forward to a positive and swift response from the Australian Electoral Commission and I hope that the Attorney-General's office will be factoring in a follow-up audit within the next year or two.

Question agreed to.