Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Changes to electoral rules threaten basic democratic rights

The Federal Government has recently passed legislation changing how people can enrol to vote in a move that threatens the basic democratic rights of all Australians and undermines this countries proud electoral tradition.

Tens of thousands of Australians will be stopped from voting at this year’s federal election due to the new laws, called the “Electoral Integrity Act” in this government’s typical Orwellian style.

There are two significant changes. The most serious means the electoral role will close at 8pm on the night the election is called. Since Federation, in 1901, the electoral role has remained open for at least a week after the election is announced. At the last federal election 83,000 first-time voters enrolled to vote in the week after the Prime Minister announced the date of the vote. Hundreds of thousands more changed their home address.

This year they will be stopped from doing so.

The second major change will make it even more difficult to enrol in the first place. New identification rules, coming into effect from April 16, will require potential voters to have two witnesses to vouch for them as well as ID similar to opening a bank account to prove they are who they say they are.

The effects of both these changes will be to stop people from voting. It will impact most heavily on people in remote communities, migrants, long-term unemployed people, marginalised people, low-income workers and indigenous Australians. People whose access to the systems of government is already low. People who, it must be said, are not traditional Liberal Party voters.

This is the kind of legislation you’d expect to see in failing democracies not in Australia in the 21st Century. It is a direct, partisan attack upon established structures. It is evidence of the extraordinary lengths John Howard will go to in order to cling to power. And it is legislation that must be overturned.

There are a number of things yo can do.
Ensure you are on the role at the Australian Electoral Commission website.
Sign the petition at GetUp! www.getup.org.au/campaign/DontLetThemStopYouFromVoting to overturn the laws.
Tell you friends and family about the changes and get them signed up.


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