Improving the electoral process in Australia

At its inauguration in 1977, the Uniting Church pledged to involve itself in social and national affairs and articulated its commitment to human rights, including the right of all people to participate in the decision making of their country. We believe that a flourishing democracy will accord every citizen an equal right to participate in the political system, and the right to vote in general elections is a foundational element of this participation.

Few people in Australia would be aware that in 2006, changes were made to our Federal electoral laws; changes which UnitingJustice believes damaged the integrity of the Australian electoral system and the ability of many Australian citizens to participate in the 2007 Federal Election, including decreasing the time available for people to enroll or change their details after an election is called (potentially disenfranchising young people, disadvantaging people in rural and remote areas and disproportionately affecting Indigenous people) and tightening proof of identity requirements to an overly burdensome level, discouraging those enrolling or changing their enrolment, particularly people with disabilities, the homeless, Indigenous Australians and older Australians.

After every Federal election a parliamentary committee, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, conducts an inquiry into the conduct of the election. In May 2008, UnitingJustice Australia made a submission to the Committee as part of the consultation process for the inquiry into the 2007 Federal Election. The National Director of UnitingJustice, Rev. Elenie Poulos, also appeared at a public hearing to answer questions from the Committee’s members and further elaborate on matters raised in our submission. On 22 June, this Committee released its report into the conduct of the 2007 Federal Election, which included several recommendations which we strongly support.

The report recommends the reinstatement of a number of provisions to protect the right to vote and recommendations to improve and modernize the voting process, including extending the time period to enroll or update enrolment details after an election has been announced, simplifying the proof of identity requirements for enrolment, allowing enrolment information to be updated electronically, and allowing for information collected by other Government agencies (Centrelink or Medicare for example) to be used to update enrolment details where consent is given.

The Committee rejected the assertion made by the previous Government that decreasing the amount of time people have to enroll or change their enrolment details and increasing the proof of identity requirements would improve the integrity of the electoral roll and make fraudulent voting activity more difficult. Rather, the report states that the “simple effect of these changes was to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible electors without any noticeable improvement in integrity.”

In its submission to the inquiry, UnitingJustice argued that the current law removing the right to vote for prisoners serving a sentence greater than three years was a violation of the right to vote under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This law disproportionately affected the participation of Indigenous Australians in the electoral process, as Indigenous persons are many times more likely than non-Indigenous persons to be in prison. In addition, participation in the voting process as part of the duties of citizenship is seen as very important to the process of prisoner rehabilitation. The Committee recommended retaining this law.

30 June 2009