Electoral Law Changes (1 Viewer)

[Generator]

Outcry over plan to change electoral laws

Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2006
(Previous title: Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2005)

Amends the: Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Enrolment Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2004 and Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 in relation to: closure of the electoral rolls; proof of identity for enrolment and provisional voting; financial disclosure requirements in non-election periods; access to the electoral roll and its use; political party registration; paid electoral advertising on the Internet; candidate nomination deposits; prisoner voting entitlements; location of Divisional Offices; abolition of broadcasters and publishers returns; and the disclosure of political donations; and Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to increase the tax deductibility value of contributions and gifts to political parties, independent candidates and members; and makes consequential amendments to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Also provides for the automatic de-registration and requirement for re-registration of certain political parties.

Source: parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au

Though the changes are all important, there are two that are of key concern (one being of key concern to young people in particular) - the closing of the rolls on the day that an election is called and the lifting of the donation disclosure amount from over $1500 to over $10000.

What are your thoughts on the changes? Are the Opposition and minor party Senators on to something, or is the Coalition's argument one that deserves the Senate's support?

 

[Generator]

Yes, and all of you who are over 17, please enrol if you have not yet done so.

 

[Optophobia]

"JOHN FAULKNER, LABOR SENATOR: Question - what price democracy? Answer - a sleazy, underhand, unethical, rotten, stinking, covered-up $10,000 donation to the Liberal Party. That's the price of democracy in this country."

lol

 

[loquasagacious]

In some ways I support the closing of the rolls as it takes emphasis off 'getting the vote out' eg enticing young people to enrol and vote. And so allows parties to focus more on winning the votes not getting them to enrol. This encourages a more positive campaign (eg vote for me for a better future) as opposed to a negative campaign (eg you must enrol to vote this bastard out). Also its going to cut costs for the AEC who no longer has to advertise as much and keep adding names to the roll (cuts admin and marketing costs). Finally you have a whole year in which to enrol before you can actually vote that seems like alot of time for you to acquire a form and fill it in.

Finally this will result in more accurate rolls as the incentive to enrol sooner will mean more static electoral rolls that dont have an upsurge of additions every time an election is called.

I am however considerably more concerned by the raising of the donation threshold. While it may be pertinent to raise it by a fairly small ammount to allow for inflation eg $1500 was worth more when that was introduced. A $10K sum seems excessive.

Though on the other hand $10K isn't exactly going to buy you the PMs ear, australian politics aren't that cheap. Hypothetically speaking I would suppose ammounts closer to (and north of) $100K are those that are going to buy influence. So I'm not seeing an enormous increase in corruption here but given the likely pyramid spread of donations (lots of small, few big) it could save alot of paperwork. This is an argument I expect to see, it is fallacious though as this refers to disclosure of not the actual keeping of records.

My only concern as far as corruption was if this was used to sneak large donations under the radar. eg rather than person X who wants to gain a little influence chucking $200K in the kitty they may instead break their donation into 20x $999.....

Conclusion this 'reform' seems to do little other than lower a veil of secrecy. If there are some benefits beyond this I'd love to hear them but doubt they exist...

 

[Iron]

AEC: Labor Party (fed+state) Receipts (in million$), 1999-2002
$1500 and over
Party: 42.5 (34%)
Private: 28.4 (23%)
Public: 19.6 (16%)
Receipts <$1500: 34.3 (27%)
Total Receipts: 124.9

Libs (state/fed) '99-02
$1500 and over
Party: 15.8 (15%)
Private: 30.1 (30%)
Public: 16.8 (16%)
<$1500: 39.3 (39%)
Total receipts: 102

 

[Generator]

*bump*

Yes, and all of you who are over 17, please enrol if you have not yet done so.

 

[turtleface]

do u think voting is overrated?

seriously i cbfed rocking up to vote, I have never heard of a result changed by one vote (yes i know if everyone does that maybe it does make a difference, but the fact of the matter since every additional person will in theory vote according to the same statistical pattern, one extra vote, no matter from how many people, won't make a difference)

and its not like theres any difference between what choice you make.

one of the worst justifications of the iraqi war was when they proclaimed that it was all worth it because people can now vote.

I'm sure the iraqi's are thinking:
WOW! I CAN VOTE! I can get some purple shit stamped on my hand. Yes admittedly hundreds of thousands have been killed so far, yes the whole country is still stuffed, yes we have little basic infrastructure let alone a futre, and yes hundreds die every week, but HEY! at least I can vote! YAY FOR DEMOCRACY