Thursday, 10 February 2022
Bills
Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021
Bills
Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021
Second reading
Debate resumed.
Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (14:55): I rise to oppose the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021. I will focus my attention on part 6 of the bill, which is particularly troubling and concerns the amendments to the Electoral Act 2002. Specifically my comments are directed to clause 23 of the bill, which the explanatory memorandum says seeks:
… to prohibit any person other than the Victorian Electoral Commission from distributing a postal vote application to an elector, whether by physical or electronic means.
This bill represents another disgusting assault by the Andrews Labor government on democracy here in Victoria. It represents how far this Andrews Labor government will go to game the system and change the rules to suit their own political interests, to cling to power in this state by applying bans in relation to the mailing out of postal vote applications that residents across Victorian communities are used to receiving and in fact are expecting. This will disenfranchise around 1 million Victorians at least—quite possibly millions—who are used to receiving postal vote information in this way. They will have no knowledge that this longstanding practice is being banned by the Andrews Labor government.
It is another example in a string of examples where the Premier has shown contempt for people. They do not trust or back Victorians to have the capacity to make up their own minds about whether to postal vote, about who to vote for or about when they open the mail from their letterbox, so Labor, astonishingly, is going to ban in it. The provisions in this legislation make it harder for Victorians to vote, not easier. The bill limits the ability for people to vote from home, which smacks of hypocrisy from a government that for two years has wanted Victorians to stay home—to work, school and play from home—and to avoid gatherings, like queues at polling booths on election day. It discriminates against vulnerable members of our community—the elderly, the immunocompromised, the culturally and linguistically diverse and those living in remote locations.
This is a bill that supports voter suppression over voter engagement and represents a desperate attempt by the Premier and his Labor government to keep silent those voters who they know might not vote for them. This Labor government know that Victorians have had enough and cannot wait to vote them out of office. With this proposed new law the Labor government are trying to game the system in their favour and limit voting options and ways to receive information about postal voting. But none of this should come as any surprise to any of us, because this is the government who gave us the outrageous red shirts scandal in which they fraudulently used taxpayers money to get themselves into power. Another Labor MP, we know, yesterday jumped ship to expose this corruption. This Labor government filled out those time sheets, getting electorate officers paid with taxpayers money when they were actually working on re-election campaigns for Labor MPs. And now in this legislation—
Ms Settle: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I was not sure that that was relevant at all to the bill.
The SPEAKER: I do ask the member for Evelyn to come back to the bill being debated.
Ms VALLENCE: In this legislation they want to strip away from Victorians legitimate ways of receiving voting information and stifle their voting options. The basis for this change is an absolute sham. The minister, in his second-reading speech, said this amendment had been introduced on the basis of recommendations made by the Electoral Matters Committee in its report on the conduct of the 2018 Victorian state election, so I decided to have a look at that particular report that the minister was so moved by to make this undemocratic change. Of the 268 pages contained in the report less than two pages are dedicated to analysing postal votes in Victoria. Pages 194 and 195, right near the back of the report, are the only references you will find as the basis of this change in the bill. This report states that the change was suggested after the 2014 election, but it was not implemented back then. The only change between the elections in 2014 and 2018, according to the report, is the number of complaints received about postal voting applications.
The report found that in 2014 there had been 28 complaints about postal vote applications. That was 28 people out of 3.5 million Victorians who voted in the 2014 election. And at the 2018 election there had only been 77 complaints. That is just 77 people out of 3.7 million Victorians who voted who were not happy about receiving postal vote information in this way. So Labor have decided to change the law and apply bans on distributing postal vote information to millions of Victorians just because 0.002 per cent of the Victorian population complained about receiving information in this way—and only five of the complaints, I understand, were due to uncertainty around who the sender of the information was. This obscure statistic is the sole basis for this undemocratic legislative change. A vastly higher proportion of Victorians made complaints about Labor’s pandemic lockdowns, but we did not see the Premier or his Labor government stopping or changing the lockdown laws. Instead they pursued longer and longer lockdown laws.
The changes in the bill also fundamentally are inconsistent with everything this government has been telling us for the last two years during the pandemic. The Labor government have constantly berated Victorian people about remaining at home and reducing their movement and contact with people. They are so drunk on power. This government installed the ring of steel, fenced off children’s playgrounds and locked up 3000 of the most vulnerable people in housing commission towers without any notice or consultation. But having increased and broader access to postal voting through assistance from political parties, whether it is the Greens, Labor, Liberal or independents, allows Victorians who do not want to stand in line for hours at polling booths around people to exercise their democratic right without the fear of potential infection. By applying bans on how postal vote information can reach voters the Andrews Labor government is discriminating against older and immunocompromised Victorians in particular from exercising their ability to vote from home, which is especially cruel in the midst of a health pandemic. And nothing has been said in the bill, by the minister or by the Labor government that they will increase funding to the Victorian Electoral Commission to communicate with Victorians to fill this void that will be left by prohibiting political parties from undertaking this important task.
In New South Wales the difference could not be starker. The New South Wales government is issuing postal packs to everyone at the moment, even if they do not request a postal ballot. That is emblematic of a government committed to strengthening the democratic processes and values and providing people with every opportunity to cast their vote. They want to make it easier for people to vote even if that means it is easier to vote for the opposition. In a disgusting contrast, the Andrews Labor government is looking for any way possible to deny people their right to vote, particularly if they might not vote for Labor. It is absolutely astonishing.
The bill continues a raft of electoral prohibitions this Andrews Labor government has put in place to maintain control—desperate control—in this state. We have had donation laws imposed by the Andrews Labor government that prohibit people from exercising their freedom of speech and association and donating to political candidates. But paradoxically these prohibitions do not apply to trade unions, which donate as much as they like and can still donate as much as they like—and unsurprisingly that is always to the Labor Party, providing an outrageous advantage in campaign funding which only seeks to undermine any integrity left in our electoral process.
This bill is an affront to our democracy. It is truly frightening how far the Andrews Labor government—the Premier and his Labor government—will go to stay in power. This bill is bad for democracy, it is bad for Victorians, and we will oppose it. We urge all members in the house to vote against this bill. We encourage Labor members to cross the floor, as Ms Vaghela did in the upper house just recently. We just want to stress that this is another example of the Premier’s and Labor’s contempt for Victorian people. Again, they do not trust Victorians. They do not back Victorians to make their own choice. Just receiving information in their letterbox does not mean they are going to necessarily vote one way or the other. It means that they are receiving information, and it is a democratic way for the political process to be able to occur in Victoria. But because Labor are so desperately worried about the prospect of the next election and because they do not trust the people that they are meant to represent, they are going to ban this longstanding rule. It is outrageous, and I urge everyone to oppose this damaging bill.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.