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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-01 Daily Xml
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Electoral (Telephone Voting) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:20): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Electoral Act 1985. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:21): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Electoral (Telephone Voting) Amendment Bill 2022. The bill proposes amendments to the Electoral Act 1985 in relation to telephone voting, and it does so with respect to what are a range of categories of designated voter as may be expanded and more particularised by regulation as might be required.

At the outset, and because he has been the subject of some consideration already this morning, I want to indicate to the house that this amendment bill brings back the subject matter of the 2021 electoral bill, insofar as it addresses these matters, but complemented by the contents of what were draft regulations presented to the house that married up with the bill, had it passed this place in 2021, but that were introduced to the body of the act by the then shadow attorney-general in the other place in February.

I note the good work of the now Attorney-General insofar as this bill now stands alone. It was part of a miscellaneous electoral bill, it was then the subject of an electronic documents electoral bill and now it stands alone. While it still provides for regulation, it, as the Hon. Kyam Maher MLC spoke to in the other place in February, brings into the body of the act certain categories of designated voter and also more particularly provides for telephone-assisted voting and the guarantees around what a telephone-assisted voter is entitled to in order to assure certainty with regard to both the entitlement and the mechanics of it.

Honourable members here in the last parliament will be familiar with the subject matter and, had they looked at the February bill in the other place, they would be familiar with the fact that it brings in those aspects that were otherwise dealt with as draft regulations when it was here. It is that bit more whole unto itself and it is dealing only with this subject matter.

As was the case in February and remains the case now, it is good to have these provisions on the statute book in plenty of time—in fact, many months, I expect. A significant period of time will be required for the Electoral Commissioner and the Electoral Commission of SA to apply these measures. There is no suggestion that it is practical to apply them, for example, to the by-election to which you referred to earlier, Mr Speaker, but it is an opportunity to introduce these measures to the statute book in an orderly way.

On that point, it is well to observe that the Electoral Commissioner produces a report after each election, and much of what was in the miscellaneous bill and the electronic documents bill came out of recommendations that were made in that report. This is not one of them. This is a measure that was raised by the commissioner as a measure that would provide further assistance to those vision-impaired and otherwise disabled electors, beyond the election report itself, for general purpose, including overseas electors and those who might suffer with more particular disabilities.

It is important to point that out because it was not conceived of as a COVID measure as such. What we have in this bill is the possibility to designate one of those categories of special elector entitled to the telephone vote as a COVID-19 elector, so it is in the bill, but it was not conceived of and nor should it be thought of as a process that is COVID related or otherwise a particular response to emergency.

It is just one of its potential applications and that is provided for in the bill, given the present circumstances that we are now in and having exited emergency management, in a way that stands alone. We know that there may be circumstances where electors find themselves isolated and unable to vote in COVID circumstances, so there it is in the bill. The machinery of it is that what we see is the insertion of a new division in part 9.

We have division 5A, which deals with the entitlement, although there in principle without the machinery, for vision-impaired voters to access electronic assistance to vote. So division 5A is still there. Division 5B now provides a further round of process for vision-impaired electors with some bolted on, practical processes to ensure that they do have access to telephone voting, as well as a whole range of other designated categories of elector. So 5B is new, 5A is still there and, rather than amend 5A, in accordance with the provisions of this bill you have them now sitting side by side.

We have heard a lot about COVID circumstances in particular, but I want to highlight that sight-impaired electors, in particular, are voters who will benefit from these more particular provisions. They are just one example of those who will benefit. Overseas voters, as we know, have been disenfranchised by increasingly slow postal systems in recent years and so that will be a benefit.

We know that telephone voting has been available in other jurisdictions, including the recent federal election, for vision-impaired electors and we know that the commonwealth parliament's committee inquiry report, 'Report of the inquiry on the future conduct of elections operating during times of emergency situations', in June 2021 has informed and provides useful guidance to us in coming now to the house with this bill.

I want to place on record my appreciation and that of all members of the house for the Electoral Commissioner and the staff for the work that they have done on the recent more or less back-to-back state and federal elections, and I want to thank parliamentary counsel for the extraordinarily efficient work consolidating this bill in a way that keeps it coming along in a coherent way from the time it was first introduced. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.

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