Even a child can see our voting system is broken

BEFORE we lower the voting age to allow teenagers, we need to tackle some other fundamental flaws in the system like voter fraud, writes Peta Credlin.

WE all get frustrated with our politicians, but we hardly ever look at the voting system that puts them there.

It’s far from foolproof and has stood Australia in good stead for 117 years, but occasionally proposals are put forward that would make it worse.

Last week, one of the new Greens senators — 23-year-old Jordon Steele-John — who fluked his way into parliament when Scott Ludlam resigned over dual citizenship — proposed voluntary voting for 16 and 17-year-olds, and electoral roll registration for 14-year-olds.

Seriously, 14-year olds on the electoral rolls? The last thing we need is to give a leg-up to the left activists like Get Up! and the Greens.

But like so many stupid ideas, it’s gone off to a parliamentary committee inquiry where it will get attention and status it doesn’t deserve. It’s no wonder that our parliament gets so little real work done, when members have to take silly ideas from the Greens so seriously.

There are, however, far more important issues the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters should be considering.

After every poll, the Australian Electoral Commission examines the rolls to check for multiple voting. At both the 2016 and 2013 elections, there were nearly 20,000 people who voted more than once; in some cases, many times. In 2013, nearly 8000 cases were referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation but not a single prosecution ever took place.

Jordon Steele-John has called for voting ages to be lowered. (Pic: Gary Ramage)

In 2016, Labor won the Townsville-based seat of Herbert by just 37 votes. The AFP were called in to investigate 42 cases of potential double voting in Herbert but, yet again, no charges were laid.

Maybe these were all innocent mistakes but, given the ferocity of our political contests, especially in the marginal seats that decide the fate of governments, it’s easy to imagine activists rorting the system if they think they can get away with it.

One way to stop multiple voting stone dead would be an electronic roll that polling booth officials could access through their iPads. Once you’ve voted, every other polling station would have you automatically marked off, so if you turned up at another booth, you wouldn’t get to vote again.

Another way to make it harder for would-be ballot-riggers would be to require photo ID. To me, this is a no-brainer and I’ve argued for it for years. To drive to the polling station, you need ID with you; even to buy cold tablets at the pharmacist you need photo ID, so asking people to show it before voting is hardly onerous. To date, Labor have always opposed showing ID to vote but if it will ensure integrity in our electoral system, isn’t this something we all should support?

And if not, you’ve got to ask, why not?

I reckon an inquiry into voter ID and electronic electoral rolls is a far better use of the parliament’s time than an inquiry into giving children the vote.