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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-22 Daily Xml
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ELECTORAL MATERIAL

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood) (15:34): I rise today to talk about the approaching federal election, in particular, electoral material. As the dust settles following the state election we are now thrust headlong into the federal campaign, hoping that the mistakes—and there were plenty of them—of the recent past are not repeated but, less than one week in, already South Australians have been subjected to dodgy tactics which bring the electoral process into disrepute. Voters in several South Australian electorates—one of which is mine in Sturt—have recently received official looking letters; and here is the one I received, emblazoned with the Australian crest. It is a very handsome envelope with the Australian crest on the front.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I haven't opened it.

Mr MARSHALL: You didn't look at it?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have been very busy, member for Norwood.

Mr MARSHALL: Well, there's plenty of time. It provides the reader with 'important' (it states very boldly) postal voting information, and also a postal voting information hotline. As members can see, it is a very official looking document that I actually received.

Of course, this is to be expected and certainly it is not unusual in any way, yet these official letters are not from the Australian Electoral Commission at all. Despite the Australian government crest, they are in fact from the offices of two Labor senators (Anne McEwen and Dana Wortley), and I believe there are many more across South Australia. These are letters in disguise. This is electoral material in disguise—but for what purpose? At no point is it made clear to the reader that these are not official Electoral Commission documents and at no point are the senators' party affiliations shown.

The postal voting information hotline is in fact a Labor senator's office. All returned forms go straight to Labor senators' offices instead of directly to the Australian Electoral Commission. Although the senators may have every intention of dutifully passing on each form received, voters still have the right to know to whom they are sending their details. There are simply no laws in place to protect people in this situation, with nothing to stop the information intended for the Australian Electoral Commission ending up on a Labor senator's database.

Voters are justifiably concerned, especially due to Labor's track record of dodgy tactics at election time. We all remember the fake Family First tee-shirts—not, of course, in Bright. Nevertheless, we all remember the fake Family First tee-shirts being worn, often by Labor staffers, as they handed out bogus voting cards during the state election. Now we are faced with a letter masquerading as an official Australian Electoral Commission document while clearly supporting the Labor candidates for various federal seats. The voters of Adelaide are not stupid, and they are wising up to the ploys of political parties, as evidenced by the number of people who called into an Adelaide radio station on Tuesday this week to voice their concerns.

Callers asked the ALP State Secretary, Michael Brown, to assure them that unfavourable votes would not be sat on in Labor offices. Although he dismissed these concerns, he could not offer any guarantee beyond his word. In the same program, Brown went onto admit that he had been involved in the now notorious Family First how-to-vote card fiasco. He was also the man who registered the www.isobelredmond.com website. Given his track record, you would have to forgive me, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I am not entirely comfortable with his personal guarantee.

I will recap. People have received an envelope, with nothing to tell them it is actually from the Labor Party. It has on it the Australian government crest. It contains a lot of information and, basically, looks like it is from the Australian Electoral Commission. People who receive these letters would fill them in thinking they were a postal vote application. They would be sent off to the ALP. Surely, there is a temptation to not pass them on or not pass them on in a timely manner. We have no assurance that this is not the case.

The Liberal Party does send out postal voting applications, which clearly state they are for the Liberal Party. Why is the Labor Party not disclosing its alliance? Using taxpayers' funds to churn out postal voting application forms with a hidden agenda may not be illegal—and the Labor Party is very clear about what is legal and what is not—but it is certainly dodgy. These dubious methods undermine the confidence that ordinary Australians have in our electoral system and the integrity of that electoral system. Ultimately, these attacks chip away at the public's confidence in our electoral integrity and cheapen our democratic process.

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