Electoral (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (16:51): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation and the detailed explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading them.

Leave granted.

Mr President, today I am pleased to introduce the Electoral (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2020 which amends the Electoral Act 1985 to improve administration, streamline and modernise processes and allow for more flexible pre-poll voting options. The Bill also includes amendments to ban corflutes on public roads and introduces optional preferential voting in the House of Assembly.

Every election cycle the Electoral Commissioner of South Australia reviews the previous election. The government of the day then considers these findings to determine whether any changes are needed to the Electoral Act.

The 2018 Report was tabled in Parliament on 28 February 2019.

After considering the Commissioner's Report the government is proposing a number of reforms. Many of which directly meet recommendations of the Commissioner, and others which have been initiated by government.

Under this Bill, the Electoral Commissioner will be able to establish pre-poll booths anywhere in South Australia up to 12 days before the election. This will replace the existing system, which provided for people to vote at declared institutions such as nursing homes or hospitals and only allowed mobile polling booths to be established in regional areas.

The Bill provides that voters who attend a pre-polling booth established for their district will have the convenience of being able to cast an ordinary vote. The counting of ordinary votes made at pre-polling booths will be able to occur before the close of polls in prescribed circumstances. This will help to ensure that the results of the election are known as soon as possible after the close of polls.

These changes are possible because each voter will be marked off on an electronic electoral roll on a computer at each issuing point in every polling place. Electronic roll mark-off will ensure that there is no risk of any person voting multiple times.

Previously in this Parliament we have seen amendments to curb the availability of pre-polling. As I have reflected in Hansard in 2017, many more people make themselves available to pre-poll voting, and they do so because it provides convenience. This is not unreasonable. We have seen a clear shift in both recent Federal and State Elections in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

Why should they not be able to vote when they want to and when it is convenient to them, especially in the weeks prior to an election?

This flexibility is consistent with the right to have a choice about when you vote and your entitlement to be able to vote, which this Bill is strengthening.

Voting is a democratic right, and if you want to vote early you frankly should be able to. I am pleased that this Bill enables greater access to voting early, and ensures that those votes, given their high numbers, can be counted expeditiously on polling day. To further reduce red tape, the Bill contains amendments so that both voters and candidates will have flexible options for lodging information with the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commissioner will be able to allow candidates to lodge nomination information and how to vote tickets online. Regulations can be made allowing voters to apply for postal ballots by phone or online.

Amendments have also been made to the date for the close of rolls and deadline to apply for postal votes. This allows for the earlier issue of voting papers and will maximise opportunities for postal voters to return postal votes in time to be counted in the election.

However, as in the current Act, voters will still be required to vote in person, if not lodging a postal ballot.

Postal votes have created, without doubt, their own challenges for all political parties and for the Electoral Commission. The timeframe for postal votes is always a consideration to ensure voters have every opportunity to vote, despite their inability to attend a pre poll, or election day polling booth.

The Bill provides both election information and public notices will be published on the internet, rather than a newspaper in the first instance. While we have seen this reform from previous governments in terms of other public notices, this government appreciates that regional newspapers play a vital role in notifications. The Bill will keep it open to the Electoral Commissioner to consider which additional advertising should be used, beyond the internet.

The act already provides voting options for a class of voters who do not have fixed addresses. The Bill includes new protections for these itinerant electors. If itinerant electors fail to vote or are outside of South Australia for more than one month, they will not lose their status. Itinerant electors will be exempt from compulsory voting. This is to avoid creating hardship for people experiencing homelessness and travelling retirees.

A number of the amendments are drafted to allow regulations or the Electoral Commissioner to set out the detail of proposed processes. This will enable further changes to be made in the future as the technology evolves. One major aspect of the Bill is that it includes a ban on the use of corflutes on public roads.

Corflute is the name given to corrugated polypropylene, a fluted plastic which is lightweight yet rigid. Through election periods across the State we see corflutes posted on 'stobie poles' advertising election candidates, and being used as 'a-frames' at shopping centres and the like.

Corflutes are without a doubt detrimental to the environment as there are limited recycling options for them—acknowledged by the Australian Greens on their website. Polypropylene is not widely recycled, with only two main recycling methods: either mechanical recycling (complicated both due to concerns around food contact and in separating types of plastic), and recycling through chemical methods to break the corflute down. While all political parties encourage their candidates to reuse and recycle corflutes, or repurpose or donate, this is often difficult and sees a continual cycle of new corflutes being printed each election.

Beyond the corflute itself, in order to suspend the advertising, they require cable ties and other fixings which often get cut and left for local wildlife to likely consume.

Beyond the environmental impact, local councils have further raised concerns about diminished roadside safety, distracting drivers and the preservation of roadside public amenity.

Corflutes are finally, without a doubt, costly to parties and do little to educate voters about a candidate or their platform beyond name ID.

The government appreciates voters will not all have access to the internet, or particularly social media, where great sums of political communication occurs about candidates and policies of the political parties of the day.

Importantly, this government appreciates that people may need to be reminded of election day and of polling place locations. As such, the Bill provides that exceptions to this ban are permitted by regulation. It may potentially be utilised to allow limited numbers of corflutes to be displayed adjacent to polling booths on election day, and potentially near polling places within the current advertising and electoral display guidelines in The act. Finally, the Bill provides for optional preferential voting in the House of Assembly.

This is a purely optional system and voters wishing to cast a more comprehensive ballot will still be able to do so. The introduction of optional preferential voting for Legislative Council candidates commenced in 2018 demonstrated that the system was an effective way of ensuring peoples' votes counted. It also gave voters a clearer understanding of where their vote was going.

Optional Preferential Voting was wholeheartedly supported by the former government and the former Attorney-General the Hon John Rau SC, who moved the Bill to enable this form of voting in this place.

At the time, that reform mirrored the voting system for the Federal Senate, which required reworking and amendment before its passage.

The reasons for this amendment are clear: South Australian voters deserve to understand where their votes are going and, should they wish, simply vote for one party, without backdoor deals diminishing their vote.

In July of this year the Advertiser South Australians were polled on their views around Optional Preferential Voting and whether corflutes should be banned. In response to the question, 'Should ballot papers allow you to number just one box?' of 1,479 voters, 76 per cent voted yes. This is overwhelming support.

What is more overwhelming is the support on the same poll for the banning of corflutes. Of the 1,879 people polled, 90 per cent of people voted yes, political posters, or corflutes, should be banned.

Mr President, this Bill makes a number of sweeping changes. It acts on recommendations from not only the 2018 Election Report, but also the 2014 Election Report which were failed to be implemented by the former government.

For voters, the changes are simple: Less environmental degradation through the production of corflutes; greater voter choice through being able to vote for the political party they desire, abolishing back door deals, and more freedom to vote early.

These changes modernise the current Electoral Laws in South Australia and give South Australians the greatest flexibility and voter power they have had. This is important and timely reform.

Mr President, I commend the Bill to Members and I seek leave to insert the Explanation of Clauses in Hansard without my reading it.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Electoral Act 1985

4—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

Certain definitions are amended for the purposes of the measure.

5—Amendment of section 8—Powers and functions of Electoral Commissioner

A function of the Electoral Commissioner to promote and encourage the casting of votes at a polling booth on polling day is deleted.

6—Amendment of section 15—Electoral subdivisions

Subsection (3) relating to remote subdivisions is deleted.

7—Amendment of section 18—Polling places

A requirement to advertise in a newspaper is amended to publication on a website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations.

8—Repeal of section 25

Section 25 relating to printing of rolls is repealed.

9—Amendment of section 26—Inspection and provision of rolls

This amendment is consequential.

10—Amendment of section 31A—Itinerant persons

2 grounds on which an itinerant elector ceases to be entitled to be enrolled are deleted.

11—Amendment of section 41—Publication of notice of application

A requirement to publish in a newspaper is amended to publication on a website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations.

12—Amendment of section 48—Contents of writ

The date for the close of rolls (currently, 6 days after the issue of the writ) is amended to the day that falls 2 days after the issue of the writ.

The requirement to publish the writ for an election in a newspaper is amended to publication on a website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations.

13—Amendment of section 49—Deferral of election

A requirement to publish notice of deferral of an election in a newspaper is amended to publication on a website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations.

14—Amendment of section 53—Nomination of candidates endorsed by political party

Various references in the section (such as to 'nomination paper') are removed to facilitate electronic nominations.

Another amendment is consequential on the removal of voting tickets.

15—Amendment of section 53A—Nomination of candidate by a person

Similar amendments to those to section 53 are made to this section.

16—Amendment of section 54—Declaration of nominations

This amendment is consequential.

17—Repeal of section 60A

The provision relating to voting tickets is repealed.

18—Amendment of section 65—Properly staffed polling booths to be provided

The reference to 'returning officer for the district' is replaced with 'Electoral Commissioner'. The other amendment requires polling booths to be established at polling places 'for' the district (rather than 'within' the district).

19—Amendment of section 66—Preparation of certain electoral material

The requirement to submit a quantity of how to vote cards is replaced with a requirement to submit them in a manner determined by the Electoral Commissioner (in accordance with any requirements of the Commissioner).

Another amendment is technical.

20—Amendment of section 71—Manner of voting

Voting by attending at a pre-polling booth and voting in the manner prescribed by this Act (not by declaration vote) is authorised. A change is made to section 71(2)(a) that is connected to the amendment to section 65(1)(a). The distance from a polling booth that a voter must be in order to be entitled to make a declaration vote is increased to 20 km. Another amendment relates to residents of a declared institutions.

21—Amendment of section 72—Questions to be put to person claiming to vote

The words 'and the address of the principal place of residence of the claimant' are deleted from the questions to be put to a voter before an authorised officer issues voting papers.

22—Amendment of section 73—Issue of voting papers

A reference to 'written' is deleted. Another amendment proposes relocating certain requirements to the regulations.

23—Amendment of section 74—Issue of declaration voting papers by post or other means

Section 74(1)(b) is amended to remove a reference to 'letter' and to allow certain requirements to be prescribed by regulations. A definition of designated time is inserted for the purposes of this amendment. The substitution of subsection (2) is related. A reference to 'mobile polling booth' is substituted with 'pre-polling booth'.

24—Amendment of section 76—Method of voting at elections

Optional preferential voting in a House of Assembly election is provided for.

25—Amendment of section 77—Times and places for polling

A reference to determining 'mobile polling booths' as places for voting in remote subdivisions is substituted with 'pre-polling booth' for any places determined by the Electoral Commissioner. Other amendments are consequential.

26—Repeal of section 83

The provision relating to taking declaration votes at a declared institution is deleted.

27—Amendment of section 85—Compulsory voting

Being an itinerant elector is added to the list of sufficient reasons for failing to vote at an election.

28—Amendment of section 89—Scrutiny

These amendments relate to the commencement of the scrutiny of ordinary votes taken at pre-polling booths before polling day at such times and places and in such manner before the close of poll determined by the Electoral Commissioner.

29—Amendment of section 91—Preliminary scrutiny

Section 91(1)(b)(i)(A) is substituted so that the relevant officer conducting the scrutiny is required to be satisfied of the identity of the elector (which must be verified in a manner prescribed by the regulations).

30—Repeal of section 93

Section 93, which relates to the interpretation of ballot papers in House of Assembly elections by use of voting tickets (which are proposed to be abolished), is consequentially repealed.

31—Amendment of section 94—Informal ballot papers

The amendment to section 94(1)(b) is consequential on the introduction of optional preferential voting in a House of Assembly election. The substitution of subsection (3) (in place of existing subsections (3) and (4)) relates to both the introduction of optional preferential voting and the abolition of voting tickets.

32—Amendment of section 96—Scrutiny of votes in House of Assembly election

This amendment is consequential on the introduction of optional preferential voting in a House of Assembly election

33—Amendment of section 115—Limitations on display of electoral advertisements

An offence of exhibiting an electoral advertising poster on a public road (including any structure, fixture or vegetation on a public road) during an election period, except in circumstances prescribed by the regulations, is provided for.

34—Amendment of section 125—Prohibition of canvassing near polling booths

This amendment is consequential on the amendments relating to declared institutions.

35—Insertion of section 129A

New section 129A is inserted:

129A—False or misleading information

An offence is prescribed that a person must not, in giving any information under the Act, make a statement knowing it to be false or misleading or omit any matter from a statement knowing that without that matter the statement is false or misleading.

36—Amendment of section 132—Injunctions

Subsection (2), which prevents an injunction from being granted under section 132 in relation to a contravention of, or non-compliance with, Division 2 of Part 13 of the Act (which sets out offences relating to electoral advertisements, commentaries and other material), is deleted.

Schedule 1—Related amendment to Local Government Act 1999

1—Amendment of section 226—Moveable signs

Currently, a sign related to a State election may be placed and maintained on a road during an election period without an authorisation or permit under Chapter 11 Part 2 of the Local Government Act 1999. That general exemption in relation to State elections is deleted as a consequence of the insertion of the offence into section 115 of the Electoral Act 1985 by the measure.

New paragraph (caa) then includes in the list of exempt signs a sign that relates to a State election and is an electoral advertising poster that is authorised to be exhibited under section 115(2a) of the Electoral Act 1985 (during an election period under that Act) (so that such a sign may be placed and maintained on a road during an election period without an authorisation or permit under Chapter 11 Part 2).

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.