AEC says 16 and 17-year-olds won’t vote in same-sex postal plebistice

The AEC moves to quash speculation by saying 16- and 17-year-olds will not be able to vote in the postal plebiscite.

Professor George Williams' tweet this afternoon.

The Australian Electoral Commission says 16- and 17-year-olds will not be able to vote in the postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage.

“There has been speculation that 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to participate in the marriage survey. This is not correct,” a statement from AEC says.

“The survey instruments will be sent to those who are on the roll; 16- and 17-year-olds are not on the roll.”

Acting Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann also said the vote would not extend to teenagers under the age of 18.

Writer Stephen Murray noted on Twitter today that the government had described an “elector” in its postal vote direction as somebody: (a) enrolled on the Commonwealth electoral roll at the end of 24 August 2017; and (b) who has made a valid application for enrolment on the Commonwealth electoral roll before the end of 24 August 2017.

Murray said the “the present ... definition of elector would also seem to cover 16- or 17-year-olds who lodged a valid application to be on the roll before 24 August.”

The Dean of the UNSW Law School, George Williams, tweeted: “Yes indeed, it appears that the govt has inadvertently extended the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds nationally in Australia for the first time.”

AEC statement re Marriage Law Postal Survey - 16 & 17 YOs #auspol pic.twitter.com/hXZEVLqhcu

— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) August 11, 2017

PM could sign ‘Yes’ letter

Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out co-signing a letter with Bill Shorten advocating a Yes vote in the gay marriage postal plebiscite, but says the move could be “counterproductive”.

The Opposition Leader has called on the Prime Minister to co-author the letter and send it to every Australian, as the government offers to legislate electoral protections to prohibit misleading material and bribery.

The Prime Minister today said he expected the vote turnout would be in excess of 50 per cent of eligible Australians - “maybe quite a bit above 50 per cent” - and the plebiscite would not be “de-legitimised” by those who did not take part.

He hit out at Mr Shorten’s joint letter proposal, declaring on 3AW radio: “This is typical of the way Shorten plays the politics. I have been a supporter of gay marriage for much longer than him.”

However Mr Turnbull did not entirely reject the proposal.

“I will certainly be telling Australians I support a Yes vote, I’ll be encouraging them to vote Yes. Whether I sign a letter with Bill Shorten, I’ll reflect on whether that is useful. It may actually be counterproductive,” he said.

“My focus will be obviously number one to be Prime Minister, run the government, look after Australians. Same-sex marriage is an important issue but there are a lot of other much more important issues for me to focus on but I will certainly encourage Australians to vote Yes.”

Approx 68,000 enrolment transactions received yesterday compared to an average daily intake of 4,000. Majority address updates #auspol

— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) August 11, 2017

Both sides of the debate have mobilised ahead of the postal vote, the result of which will be known in November, with cabinet Minister Christopher Pyne saying he will be campaigning for gay marriage.

Mr Pyne, a senior moderate Liberal, was criticised during the winter break for saying gay marriage would happen “sooner than everyone thinks”.

“If the Australian public vote for marriage equality, and I hope they will and I’ll be voting Yes and campaigning for a Yes vote, then the parliament will introduce legislation, it’ll be passed by Christmas,” Mr Pyne told the Nine Network’s Today show.

“Whether it’s binding or not doesn’t really matter, the truth is if the Australian public express a view and politicians then choose not to listen to them, well then they will face the consequences at the ballot box.”

Mr Turnbull has stopped short of saying he would campaign for a Yes vote.

Acting Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann said the government would seek to work with the parliament to subject the postal plebiscite campaign to usual electoral campaign rules.

“If there is a view that it would be desirable to have the usual protections that are enshrined in the Electoral Act available in this exercise then the government is open to work constructively and in good faith with all parties in the parliament to make that happen,” Senator Cormann told Sky News.

“The government is very committed for this to be a fair process to give all Australians the opportunity to have their say on whether or not they believe whether the definition of marriage should be changed. We call on all Australians to vote with their conscience and participate in this process with courtesy and respect.”

Mr Shorten said Labor would be “constructive” in considering the protections legislation.

“We want to protect people from hateful speech. The real shame of it is we’re going to have to put laws into place to protect people from hate speech which didn’t have to happen if we just had the vote in parliament,” he said.

“Do you know what’s ironic? They’ll pass a law to have the vote but they just won’t pass the law on the actual marriage equality vote. Isn’t it absurd? They’re going to do more effort to avoid having a vote, we’re going to be voting in parliament on how not to make sure the postal survey is a complete disaster.”

Mr Dreyfus said legal action against the postal vote in the High Court, in to be heard later today, had “some chance of success”. He said the two challenges would likely be heard together.

“They are both raising pretty much the same points, one is that this survey ...can’t take place without legislation in the parliament because it is completely extraordinary expenditure and you need an appropriation by legislation to spend $122 million,” told ABC radio.

“The second point that is being made is that it is beyond the power of the Australian Bureau of Statistics ...to engage in this kind of survey.”

Mr Dreyfus rejected it was inconsistent for Labor to ridicule the legitimacy of a postal plebiscite while also campaigning for the Yes case.

“This is a vote that has been rigged against getting a positive outcome from the start, the plebiscite was a delaying tactic invented by Tony Abbott carried on by Malcolm Turnbull,” he said.

“This vote, or survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, is a delaying tactic and it’s a mess already, the fact the government is talking about needing some legislation to regulate the conduct of this survey shows what a mess it is and shows it is a shambles.

“But despite all that we are going to have to participate and we are calling on people to get out there and campaign and make sure that there is a resounding Yes result for marriage equality in Australia.”

Anglican minister Michael Jensen urged Yes campaigners not to claim that people who campaigned against changing the Marriage Act were bigots.

“I do feel like some of the rhetoric from the Yes campaign is designed to shut down the No campaign by saying that any opposition to same-sex marriage is bigotry,” Dr Jensen told ABC radio.

“I don’t accept that and I think indeed you could look at what (Labor frontbencher Penny) Wong herself said five years ago, I assume she wasn’t a bigot then when she upheld traditional marriage on behalf of the Labor Party.”

The Prime Minister yesterday said there would be communications laws in place for the postal vote and rules overseeing the gathering of statistics and criminal sanctions against false and misleading statements.

The Australian was told there were no obligations on broad­casters to offer equal time to either side of the ballot, as in an election. One executive said misleading and deceptive conduct rules would not apply, given the debate was not an issue of trade or commerce.

Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis