ELECTORAL (OPTIONAL PREFERENTIAL VOTING) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:42): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Electoral Act 1985. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:42): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is quite simple and straightforward. It provides that, when voting for the House of Assembly elections, an elector would not have to give a preference other than obviously their first preference. They do not even have to do that by law; they have to attend and get their name crossed off. It means that they do not have to vote for someone or more than one person that they do not support or wish to indicate any support for.

Therefore, in the House of Assembly, you would simply vote for your first choice if you wanted to cast a first choice, but importantly for the Legislative Council I think it is a very significant proposed reform in that, rather than having the complicated arrangement that we have now, which some people would argue is designed to help certain interests, that voting there you would only have to indicate, if you chose, a preference up to the number of vacancies in the Legislative Council.

What deters a lot of people from filling it out—say, if there are 74 names on the ballot paper for the Legislative Council—is that they cannot be bothered or they make a mistake because by the time they have got to 65 they are not sure whether they have done the right thing or filled them all in. This bill provides for an indication according to the number of vacancies and the candidates chosen would therefore be able to match the vacancies.

I think it is a simple reform which makes it more likely that people will therefore go down the ballot paper and indicate their preference for the vacancies that are required to be filled for the Legislative Council, rather than having to negotiate their way through sometimes 60, 70 or 80 names.

I know that we have above-the-line voting, but some people would argue that that is designed to allow the preferences to be directed by the parties above the line rather than to encourage or facilitate voters exercising their full choice below the line. So I think this is a simple reform which has merit and I commend it to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Sibbons.