Bills

Electoral (Candidate Declarations) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (23:38): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Electoral Act 1985; and to make a related amendment to the Constitution Act 1934. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (23:39): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This is a bill that I have considered very closely after discussion with Australian Conservatives and, even more importantly, discussion with a range of constituents across South Australia. Essentially, the purpose of this bill being introduced tonight is that we have had a number of circumstances in recent political history where members of parliament—Independents or potentially a party—have gone to people saying, 'Come and give us a hand on polling booths. Come and put posters up. Support us, please, and, trust me, I will put in a Liberal government or a Labor government.'

Whilst I want to be careful about not naming certain individuals who are no longer alive, we saw a consequence of that in the seat of Hammond back in 2002. I know for a fact that the then member told people that, if they supported him, he would return a Liberal government, only to find that he returned a Labor government. Sixteen years on, we now see that party in government. I had people come to me and say, 'Robert, this is wrong because, whilst I supported that individual in that seat because I thought they were doing a good job for the seat, I am a conservative,' or it could have been an alternative, such as, 'I am a socialist.' It does not matter, but they expected that person would put into office as a government a certain party that they thought aligned with their values.

In more recent times, we have seen in the seat of Frome a situation where the member decided, without telling his constituents before the poll, that he supported a Labor government into office. Even more recently, we saw a former leader of the Liberal Party, the member for Waite, go on to become a Labor government minister. Some people probably do not worry about that, but a lot of people do. I believe that this is about true democracy and true transparency. What an individual member or a party may finally decide is up to them, not the two major parties, the Labor Party or the Liberal Party.

This bill is really focused on crossbench parties and Independents in both houses. Labor and Liberal are not a problem from this point of view because we know, if the majority of people vote for Labor members of parliament in the House of Assembly, they will get a Labor government. We know, if the majority of people vote in the House of Assembly for a Liberal Party, they will get a Liberal government. That is not what this bill is focused on; it is about focusing on the rest of us, and Australian Conservatives is one of those parties.

We will be running candidates in the lower house. We do not have a problem being transparent, open and honest prior to the election, after proper deliberation and consideration, seeing what is happening with policy and direction, seeing the mood of weekly polls about who the majority of people believe should form government at that time. We do not have a problem coming out and advising the Electoral Commission seven days prior—the Friday prior—to the Saturday week election whether we would put a Liberal or a Labor government in. We think that is the least we should do for, first, our membership base and, second, those people who would look to support our party. It is simply about being open, honest, transparent and accountable. It is not about doing deals afterwards that might suit a certain party or a certain individual because I would suggest that most times that is not in the state's best interest that that occurs.

This bill is even more important now because we have another dynamic that has come. Just for the history, I will put on the record: Mr Xenophon came into the parliament in the Legislative Council. He was elected by about 2.2 per cent, a very small percentage, a percentage that he has since tried to stop any other person coming in on, by the way, so that in itself is an interesting little bit of history. Nevertheless, he got in democratically with about 2.2 per cent and with the support of some media that liked his stunts, where he jumped on little carts and drove down the front of this parliament and more or less shamed every other member of parliament that might have used a Fleet SA vehicle that came out of their allowance. He gained a lot of momentum and support.

After being re-elected—people actually elected him to be in here—he then said, 'I can't do too much here, really; I have to go to Canberra. So, trust me, send me to Canberra.' So, off he went to Canberra and, surprise surprise, after just being re-elected to Canberra, Mr Xenophon then said, 'I can't do anything in Canberra, so maybe I had better come back to South Australia, where I can be the white knight, be the kingmaker, play wedge politics and possibly be de facto premier. Then I can actually get a bit to happen.' That is what he said. These are facts and that is what he said. I am happy to debate them with him publicly, anywhere. I would love to actually have a public debate with Mr Xenophon. I would really look forward to it.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins): The Hon. Mr Brokenshire, he is actually 'the honourable'. He did spend 10 years in this place.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: The Hon. Mr Xenophon. However, the point is that if you are going to come back and be a kingmaker, if you are going to be a party like ours and you are going to put a certain party into power, I think the least you can do is actually show some honesty to the people of South Australia about who you would put into power. I do not think that is unreasonable. I have noticed with interest that, whilst the Hon. Mr Xenophon is not challenged that often by some of the media in this state, one question they have asked him is, 'Who would you put into office?' and he says, 'No, no, I can't tell you that. That will depend.'

I think the South Australian community deserves better than that. This is an opportunity for all the crossbench parties to now make a decision on who, within seven days of the election, they would put into office. Tomorrow morning, we will see another example in The Advertiser of what Mr Xenophon believes in, because he has now retired from the Senate and has gone to work for the person that replaced him.

An honourable member: He has a pension.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I do not quite understand that either, because you are either in or out. It is not a halfway house parliament, but we will look at that down the track as well, and I will watch with interest to see how that is reported tomorrow. In summary, I say that we on the crossbench actually do have a responsibility to the people of South Australia. We are not a populist party, and I would not support a populist party. I support a principle party and I am proud to say that our party is a principle party.

I see the principles of the Greens. I may not agree with all of the Greens' principles, but I actually see their principles. So, I do not think it is unreasonable, if we want people to vote for us, to be transparent and say to them, seven days out, when we have had plenty of time to assess everything, 'If you vote for us and we end up having the balance of power, this is who we would put into government.' So, that is what this bill is all about.

I look forward to input and debate from my colleagues on all sides of the Legislative Council. I believe this is sensible. While some people will not like this bill, I have done a litmus test on this across the state and the absolute majority of people say to me that, whilst they reserve their right, they strongly support that. We are out there saying, 'Here is a strong alternative in Australian Conservatives. Here is our argument and we have the reasons to back that up.' But we also say that with that comes the responsibility of telling you, if we were in the privileged position of having the balance of power, who we would put into government. I commend the bill to the house and I look forward to the debate.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.