Coalition pushes for voter identification laws and launches attack on GetUp
Coalition MPs and senators have called for voter identification laws but Labor has warned such a push would amount to “a pathway to voter suppression”.
The recommendation is contained in joint standing committee on electoral matters report on the 2016 election, which also calls for a higher bar to register a minor party and consideration of higher penalties for nonvoting and tax deductibility of political donations.
The Liberal chair, James McGrath, also used his foreword to the report to launch a stinging attack on GetUp, accusing it of providing “misleading information”. He said this was a “potential contempt of the parliament”, a claim rejected on Wednesday by the Speaker of the House.
The Coalition-controlled committee recommended voters be made to verify their identity or their address at polling places by producing documents such as a driver’s licence, Medicare card or utilities bill.
Voters who failed to produce acceptable identification would be required to complete a declaration vote, which requires further details such as date of birth and a signature.
McGrath said it was a “regrettable omission” that Australia did not “treat elections with the same gravity as a visit to a surf club or entering a Brisbane CBD pub after 10pm on a Friday night”, both of which require ID.
He said the reform should be implemented “promptly” to counter “the current mistrust of politicians and the democratic process by the voting public”.
McGrath said that, with the federal election due next year, the government wanted “to make sure our electoral system is ready” including that it is “healthy, transparent, and fair for all”.
The four Labor members of the committee and the Greens dissented on the voter ID call, warning it would likely disenfranchise Indigenous Australians, family violence victims, young, homeless people and itinerant people.
The Labor members said claims of double voting were “unsupported by the evidence” and Coalition senators did not identify a single irregularity in the 2016 election.
They noted Coalition members had made a similar call after the 2013 election and the introduction of voter ID laws in Queensland had lowered turnout in the 2015 election before the requirement was repealed.
“This parliament should not take any step which would have the effect of reducing the number of Australians participating in our democracy.”
After the 2016 election, voters were made to wait eight days for a result as postal votes dribbled in and helped the Coalition form majority government. In reaction to the delay Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten called for the introduction of electronic voting.
Appetite for electronic voting in the political class has waned after fears of foreign interference increased after the 2016 US presidential election.
The committee rejected calls for electronic voting, with McGrath noting it would need “much greater confidence in the security of electronic voting options”.
Instead the committee called for the national rollout of electronic certified lists to mark electors off at polling places.
The committee recommended that parties be required to have 1,000 members to register and field candidates in the federal election and to remove the exemption from that rule for parties with a member in parliament.
In a dissenting report, the Greens senator Larissa Waters said her party had “some concerns” about the proposed new membership threshold because “it will be a disincentive and barrier to new political parties”. The requirement should stay at 500 members, she said.
The committee recommended the government review the $20 penalty for failure to vote, after evidence it was an “inadequate deterrent against nonvoting”.
It said the government should also consider whether donations to political parties should be tax deductible because under current laws taxpayers can give donations to charities to run political campaigns and receive a deduction but not if they donate to political parties.
The Greens expressed concern about higher penalties for non-voting and opposed tax deductibility of political donations.
In his foreword, McGrath accused GetUp of providing “false and misleading information” that “substantially obstructed the committee”.
That claim relates to the Liberals’ concern over the accuracy of GetUp’s evidence about its “vision survey” of its members. MP Ben Morton raised the issue in parliament on 29 November, seeking it be referred to the privileges committee.
On Wednesday the speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith, said he had reviewed the matter and while he accepted GetUp had been “less than forthcoming” in response to the committee’s queries in what could be seen as “unhelpful” and “misleading” conduct, it was not clear the conduct was “intentional” or “improper”.
Smith noted that “ultimately GetUp provided the full response to the survey” and the conduct did not impede the committee, so he refused to refer the matter to the privileges committee as there was no prima facie case of contempt of parliament.
GetUp’s national director, Paul Oosting, said the Speaker’s intervention demonstrated Morton’s criticism was an “attempt to smear GetUp as a vindictive conspiracy theory”.