OPINION: How to fix voter enrolment in the bush
The proposed Voter ID Bill being considered in Canberra is based on the falsehood that election fraud is a problem in Australia — it is a bad law, writes NLC chair Samuel Bush-Blanasi.
Opinion
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THE future of democracy in the Northern Territory will be decided in faraway Canberra over the next two weeks.
The federal government’s Electoral Legislation Amendment (Voter Integrity) Bill 2021 is expected to move to the Senate before federal parliament rises for the long summer break.
The federal government wants the Voter ID Bill to be in place for the next election, due to be held by May next year.
The proposed Voter ID Bill is based on the falsehood that election fraud is a problem in Australia. It is not. It is a bad law.
There is no evidence of irregular voting or election fraud in the NT or anywhere else in the country.
On its face, the Voter ID legislation seems reasonable enough. Just as you would in many other areas of day-to-day life, when you go to vote you would need to show some identification. A driver’s licence, a passport, Medicare card etc.
But for many — if not most — Aboriginal Territorians that live in remote communities and homelands, the Voter ID legislation will provide yet another barrier to them exercising their democratic rights and responsibilities.
Remote community enrolment is appallingly low. Why? One reason may be that the federal body charged with ensuring that Australians are enrolled to vote hasn’t done its job properly.
The Australian Electoral Commission (the AEC) maintains both the Commonwealth and NT electoral rolls. This means that the electoral rolls for all levels of government in the Northern Territory — Federal, Territory and local government — use the one roll produced and maintained by the AEC.
Earlier this year a complaint was made to the Australian Human Rights Commission about how the AEC maintains the NT’s electoral roll, particularly in respect of remote Aboriginal communities. The complaint was made by Matthew Ryan of Maningrida and Ross Mandi of Galiwin’ku, both Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land that are respectively the sixth and eighth largest towns in the NT.
The nub of their complaint is that the AEC has discriminated against them — and their communities — by failing to properly apply a policy called direct enrolment designed to lift enrolment rates for all Australians.
The implementation of direct enrolment has seen a welcome lift in enrolments to around 97 per cent nationally.
Everywhere that is, other than in the remote areas of the NT and Western Australia that languish in the lowest enrolment rate band of around 75 per cent to 80 per cent – substantially lower than nationally.
The Voter ID Bill won’t do anything to fix the low enrolment rates in remote Australia before the next election.
But the following simple and straightforward suggestions will, both in the short-term — before the next election — and beyond.
Improve enrolment. The electoral law should be changed so that it is easier for remote, and other unenrolled people, to vote.
Use local agencies and organisations already in place in remote communities. Post offices, local councils, associations and corporations, ranger groups, not-for-profit organisations and CDP providers could be paid to provide enrolment services.
Apply the direct enrolment policy. There are affordable and effective ways to ensure that persons can be notified they are on the roll. The AEC should use direct enrolment before the next election.
Give people sufficient time to vote. Improvements must be made to how polling booths at larger communities and mobile polling for homelands and smaller communities operate.
The Northern Land Council will have more to say about measures that would help to maximise enrolment before the next election.
Any changes that diminish the democratic rights of one group of citizens in the NT diminish the rights of us all.
We welcome all Territorians — and all politicians, whether in local government, the NT parliament or in Canberra — to join the Northern Land Council in opposing the proposed Voter ID legislation.
Samuel Bush-Blanasi is the chairman of the Northern Land Council
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