News archive 2006–07

ANAO: Regional spending program ‘political’

A report by Auditor-General on the first three years of the Federal Government’s Regional Partnerships Program (2003-06) has found it to have ‘fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration’. There has been much comment in the media and elsewhere on the use of the program for pork-barreling in the 2004 election. The Auditor-General’s report expresses concern that decisions were taken to fund certain projects not recommended by the department, and that some decisions ‘were open to the interpretation that they had been made for political reasons and not on the merits of the project’.

Further politicisation of the public service

The Canberra Times reports that public servants have been compiling ‘cheat sheets’—breaking down government expenditure by federal electorate—for government MPs and candidates to use in the election campaign. The information compiled by public servants was not passed on to the parliamentary library and FOI requests have been blocked by extortionate charges quoted for scrutiny of the expenditure breakdowns. Together, Education, Communications, Defence and Family and Community Services wanted more than $50 000 to release the documents, estimating it would take thousands of hours to scrutinise the documents. The Canberra Times notes that the self-imposed regime of scrutinising the documents line-by-line has enabled agencies to ride out the election without disclosing further evidence of pork barrelling.

Read the Canberra Times here and here.

Former PMs criticise ‘culture of secrecy’

Former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam have written an open letter on the decline of responsible government and the failure to observe the principle of ministerial accountability. They have urged the winners of the November 2007 general election to launch a full, independent inquiry.

Relating to the former PMs’ open letter, Spencer Zifcak and Victor Perton have an article in the Australian calling for a revamped code of ministerial accountability, as recommended in the Australasian Study of Parliament’s Be honest, minister!

How should I vote?

GetUp has an online questionnaire designed to find the candidate who most closely matches your opinions. Candidates in all electorates answered 20 questions and their responses were recorded. You answer the same questions and your answers are matched with the candidates standing in your electorate. A personal How To Vote card is then generated. It’s good fun and the site has been independently checked for fairness, though not all candidates have answered the questionnaire.

Australian democracy special edition

In the wake of the Federal election, the Centre for Policy Development is publishing a special edition of InSight, its online journal, on the state of Australia’s democracy. It is to be published on 28 November 2007.

ASIO criticised

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been roundly criticised by a judge for their conduct, including false imprisonment and kidnap, in bringing terrorism charges against a Sydney medical student.

MPs’ activity

The Daily Telegraph has audited the activity of members of the House of Representatives. It finds that members who are stepping down are generally less active and hard-working than those standing for re-election and that coalition members in marginal seats are more likely to ask ‘Dorothy Dixers’ at Question Time.

Tightening up the New Zealand political finance regime

The Justice and Electoral Committee of the New Zealand parliament has just reported back on the Electoral Finance Bill. The Bill is intended to close loopholes revealed in the last election when the Exclusive Brethren was the third largest known spender.

Accountability failings in Canada

The regulations to govern lobbyists under Canada’s much publicised Federal Accountability Act have still not come into force, although the Act received royal assent in December 2006. The party launched its bid for government at the last election with a strong commitment to closing the ‘revolving door’ between lobbyists and government.

Despite promises, little has been done to curb the power of lobbyists, and now Prime Minister Harper has come under fire over the appointment of the head of an industry lobby group, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, to lead the Conservative research bureau.

Audit contributor Katherine Gelber (UNSW) and Adrienne Stone (University of Melbourne) have edited a collection on the laws governing hate speech.

  • More details are available here

19 October 2007

Australian electoral management bodies’ independence

Australia is at the forefront of professional and independent electoral administration, especially when assessed in international comparative studies. However, while there is often debate about the levels of fairness provided by the various electoral systems in use throughout Australia, less scrutiny has been applied to the electoral management bodies charged with administering these systems.

  • Read a paper given to the Australasian Political Studies Association last month by the Audit’s Norm Kelly, here.

The close of the electoral roll

At 8pm on Wednesday 17 October 2007, the commonwealth electoral roll closed for enrolments and re-enrolments. Electors already on the roll but who want to change their address have until the evening of Tuesday 23 October to get their forms to the Australian Electoral Commission. You can check your current enrolled address here and obtain a form here. Note, however, that it is now too late for people who are not on the roll to register.

When the federal government legislated last year to close the rolls for new enrolments on the day the writs were issued, and for re-enrolments three days afterwards, it justified the change on the grounds that the week’s grace that had previously existed had put unwanted stress on the AEC’s operations. The Commissioner agreed that it would ‘make our life easier’. It is not clear, therefore, whether the AEC welcomed the three day window that resulted from the Prime Minister issuing the writs three days after announcing the election in 2007.

However, after the election was announced the AEC advertised widely the Wednesday evening deadline, and the Sydney Morning Herald has reported a last minute ‘steady stream’ of first-time voters enrolling at the AEC’s Sydney office.

Also on the subject of the electoral roll, Simon Jackman, who co-authored an Audit paper with Peter Brent in June has an update at The Bulletin’s website.

Jackman and Brent for the Audit.

Blogger William Bowe looked at the issue in Crikey this week.

As did the Sydney Morning Herald

and the Canberra Times.

We will have to wait until after the election to determine how well the AEC coped under the new conditions


Party donations

In the wake of the prime minister’s admission that he would welcome donations to the Liberal Party from Gunns, the company behind the proposed Tasmanian pulp mill, Ken Coghill (Monash University) has a piece on the ABC’s website on the shortcomings of the regulation of political finance in Australia.


Labor commitment to fixed terms

ALP leader Kevin Rudd has committed his party to a referendum on the introduction of four-year, fixed-term governments.


Kirby calls for dissenting judiciary

Justice Michael Kirby has criticised the conservatism of his fellow High Court judges in the annual Hawke Lecture. Whilst government is inevitably constrained to a degree by the need for consensus and compromise, he argues the independence of the judiciary should see them dissenting from majority opinion in order for social progress to be achieved.

The transcript and a recording of the speech are available here.

Campaign poster ban in NSW?

An apparently innocuous piece of legislation currently before the New South Wales parliament could have important election campaigning implications, especially for small parties and Independents. The Electricity Supply Amendment (Offences) Bill 2007 makes it an offence to enter or climb electricity works and this, it seems, would include putting up campaign posters on electricity poles. Lacking the resources of the big parties, smaller parties and independents rely on this sort of free campaigning so the bill could further skew the electoral process against them.

The bill is available here.


Another Bill of Rights?

Following a community consultation process, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute has recommended that Tasmania become the latest jurisdiction in Australia to enact a Bill of Rights. Australia remains the only comparable country without a Bill of Rights, though the ACT and Victoria have both introduced them.

A summary of the Institute’s recommendations is available here.

The full report is available here.
Democracy in Pacific Asia

Roland Rich, the former head of the ANU’s Centre for Democratic Institutions and recently appointed executive head of the United Nations Democracy Fund, has a new book examining democracy in Pacific Asia.

It is available from Amazon.

20 September 2007

Queensland and Victoria move on FOI reform

The practice of Queensland governments taking documents to cabinet meetings to keep them secret will be restricted following a review of the State’s Freedom of Information laws. David Solomon, who heads the committee established by new Queensland Premier Anna Bligh to overhaul the laws, has identified the cabinet secrecy provisions as a target for reform.

“It isn’t good enough for documents to be able to be wheeled into cabinet without any rules to keep them from the public eye,” he said.

The move follows an initiative by another new premier, John Brumby, to strengthen Victoria’s FOI regime.


Queensland premier resigns

Peter Beattie became the third Labor premier to voluntarily step down in the last two years, when he announced his resignation on August 10 2007. He stated exhaustion as the reason for giving up the job after almost 10 years. His deputy, Anna Bligh was elected unopposed as his successor.


The Attorney-General on a bill of rights

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock had a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald arguing against an Australian bill of rights. Australia is the only Western democracy without a bill of rights or its equivalent, though the ACT and Victoria have now taken this step and Western Australia is consulting on a draft bill. The Auditor-General argues that a bill of rights will not ensure rights are respected and moves power from elected government to an unelected judiciary.

High Court overturns prisoner vote ban

A High Court ruling has overturned the measure contained in the 2006 Electoral Amendment Act to remove prisoners’ right to vote. Following an appeal by a woman prisoner serving a sentence in Victoria, the High Court overturned the ban. The Court did maintain earlier legislation imposing a ban on prisoners serving sentences of over three years.


Access card legislation could be delayed

Legislation to introduce a national access card could be delayed until after the upcoming federal election. The bill was put on hold after a Senate committee warned that the smart card was likely to become a de facto identity card, and critics have rung alarm bells about the privacy implications.

30 August 2007

Prisoner voting ban overturned

The High Court today (30 August 2007) overturned last year’s amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act taking the vote away from all prisoners. Prisoner Vicky Lee Roach successfully appealed against the ban. The Court has reaffirmed the previous ban applying to prisoners serving a sentence of three or more years.

29 August 2007

The accessibility of administrative justice

The Queensland parliament’s Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee has picked up the inquiry on the accessibility of administrative justice initiated but not completed in the last parliament, broadening the original terms of reference. The deadline for submissions is 28 September 2007. Full details of the inquiry can be found here.


Due process in Queensland local government mergers?

In the wake of the Northern Territory Emergency Bill, it seems it is not just the federal government that is keen to push legislation through without due process. The Queensland government has pushed through legislation dramatically reducing the number of local authorities and councillors with only one day of parliamentary debate. An amendment sacking any council that held a local ballot on the proposed mergers was also introduced. The State government subsequently backed down on the amendment  after the Federal government threatened to intervene and fund the plebiscites; a Senate committee inquiry has been launched to investigate the matter.

The details of the Senate inquiry are here.

Read more in The Age.
Government questions polling integrity

The federal government has responded to continued poor opinion polling by questioning the integrity of the one of the polling companies. This emerged as a result of the involvement of a senior member of polling firm IPSOS in fundraising for ALP candidate for Bennelong, Maxine McKew. Whilst the integrity of opinion polling is important, it should be noted that the government has been getting poor results in polls by companies where no ALP connection has been found!

Read more in the Australian


Be honest, Minister!’ Restoring faith in government in Australia

At the request of the authors, we are making the report of the Australasian Study of Parliament (ASPG) Accountability Working, ‘Be honest, Minister!’ Restoring faith in government in Australia, available on the Audit website. The report recommends strengthening the code of ministerial responsibility, strengthening FOI, regulating lobbying, establishing a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and moving towards the independence of Presiding Officers.

Read it here

16 August 2007

Peter Andren

Peter Andren, the Independent MP for Calare, has announced that cancer has forced him to withdraw from his campaign for a Senate seat. He has been a strong campaigner for democratic integrity as well as a supporter of the Audit. We send him our very best wishes for his recovery.

Victorian premier resigns

After eight years in office, Victorian premier Steve Bracks stepped down on 30 July 2007. His contribution to restoring democratic practice in the State, including entrenching the independence of the Auditor-general and of the Director of Public Prosecutions, is discussed in this article by Joseph O’Reilly in New Matilda:

Open government in Victoria

The new premier of Victoria, John Brumby, has announced measures to increase government transparency. They include:

  • Prioritising new legislation to reform the FOI Act;
  • Releasing an annual Statement of Legislative Intent from 2008;
  • Funding live web-casting of all sessions of the Legislative Assembly and Council—including question time;
  • Releasing quarterly reports that detail the costs and benefits of all Ministerial overseas travel;
  • Publicising the remuneration band and identity of members of Government boards and advisory committees; and
  • Posting transcripts of the Premier’s media conferences on his website www.premier.vic.gov.au as soon as they become available.

The media release is here

Lack of good process over NT legislation

The federal government introduced the legislation covering its intervention in NT Aboriginal communities (Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 & Related Bills) on 7 August 2007. The Bills amounted to over 500 pages but were only made available the day before debate began in the House of Representatives. They were swiftly passed, despite numerous concerns being identified, and were sent on to the Senate. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee was able to hold one day of public hearings on Friday before being required to report on Monday 13 August. This hardly amounts to proper legislative scrutiny and review!.

Launch of Right to Know Campaign

A coalition of media organisations has launched Australia’s Right To Know campaign in response to a tightening of the operating environment for media organisations and journalists. The coalition includes News Limited, the ABC, Fairfax, the SBS, and AAP.

The campaign’s aim is to draw public attention to the growing restrictions on journalists and free speech in Australia. First priority of the campaign is to commission an independent study of threats to free speech and expression in this country.

The campaign’s joint statement is here

New Sex Discrimination Commissioner named

The Federal Government has announced a senior lawyer will take on the role of Sex Discrimination Commissioner, which has been vacant since Pru Goward was elected to the NSW parliament. Elizabeth Broderick is a businesswoman and partner at the law firm Blake Dawson Waldron and will take up the five-year appointment next month. The Attorney-General says Ms Broderick has been an advocate for women and championed flexible work arrangements:

Save the Senate

Two hundred and fifty people turned up for the ‘Save the Senate’ forum hosted by GetUp! in Canberra on 9 August 2007. Clerk of the Senate Harry Evans said that proper legislative scrutiny was in the interests of government as well as the people and helped save governments from policy failures.

ALP to cut incumbency perks

In his National Press Club Address on 8 August 2007, Shadow Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said that a Labor government will reduce the amount of public money being diverted to electioneering. Labor will cut MPs’ printing allowances by one third and ministerial staff numbers by 30 per cent, as well as abolishing the Government Communications Unit.

Read the full speech here

Senate Watch

The Australian Democrats have been maintaining a watch over the government’s use of the Senate since it gained its narrow majority. They have published data covering the period before and since the government gained control, showing: the reduction in sitting days; the fall in amendments accepted (from 42 per cent to 1 per cent); the failure to agree to any orders for the production of documents; the increased rejection of references to committees; and the increased use of the guillotine to curtail debate.

US Senate tightens lobbying rules

The US Senate has voted to tighten the rules governing lobbying. The bill, which still has to be signed by the President (who, reportedly, has serious concerns about it), requires disclosure of ‘earmarks’ (special funds for specific projects slipped into spending bills), outlaws pensions to politicians convicted of bribery, requires disclosure of campaign donations that have been raised by lobbyists, and bars former Senators from lobbying Congress for two years after leaving office.

e-voting concerns in the UK

The UK Electoral Commission has called for an end to trials of e-voting and phone voting until security measures have been improved. Thirteen pilots were held during the May 2007 local government elections, which revealed a number of technical problems.

Kiefel appointed to the High Court

The number of women serving as High Court judges has risen to two with the appointment of Susan Kiefel. She becomes only the third woman Justice on the High Court since it was established in 1903. Women constitute four of the nine justices on the Canadian Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Multiculturalism, human rights and democracy

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities (HREOC) and the Sydney Democracy Forum are hosting a forum to examine the state of multiculturalism in Australia.

The event will be between 2.30 and 5.00 on Friday 17 August 2007, in the Metcalfe Auditorium, State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney.

RSVP to lizhou@humanrights.gov.au

Public Policy Network annual conference

The annual National Public Policy Network Conference will be held on the Sunshine Coast on 31 January – 1 February 2008. The conference is being jointly organised by the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Southern Queensland, and will involve academics from around Australia and internationally.

3 August 2007

Government responses to committees

The latest six-monthly report on government responses to committee reports was presented to parliament on 21 June 2007. Astonishingly, it would appear that the government has failed to respond to a single report within the required three-month period. Indeed, some are still awaiting a response after several years. Whilst in a few cases the government claims a response is pending, subject to developments, in the case of the report on A Certain Maritime Incident (tabled in October 2002), the government  is still deciding whether it is going to respond at all. Perhaps the most worrying thing is not that the government is reluctant to respond to reports, but that parliament allows this.

The full reports can be found in Hansard:

British votes to decide key Australian seats?

A government response to a question on notice from Sen Andrew Murray has revealed that there are still some 163,887 voters on the electoral roll who are not Australian citizens. British subjects who were on the roll in January 1984 were allowed to stay on it indefinitely, unlike the situation in Canada where Canadian citizenship was required from 1975. The Australian High Court determined in 1999 that the UK was a ‘foreign power’, making British citizens ineligible to sit in the Australian parliament because of their foreign allegiance. British citizens can still, however, decide elections in federal seats such as Brand and Canning in WA and Kingston and Wakefield in SA.

Same-Sex: Same Entitlements

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released its report Same-Sex: Same Entitlements on 22 June 2007. This reports on the inquiry into discrimination against same-sex couples in accessing financial and work-related entitlements. HREOC found that 58 federal laws discriminated against same-sex couples, including areas such as superannuation, Medicare and child support. While same-sex couples were ‘first-class tax-payers’ they were second-class citizens in terms of entitlements and this also meant a discriminatory impact on their children.’ This was the inquiry that Howard government ministers instructed their departments and agencies not to make submissions to.

NSW Election Funding Inquiry

The NSW Legislative Council has set up (27 June) a select committee to inquire into the funding and disclosure of donations to political parties and candidates in State and local government elections. The inquiry was moved by Liberal MP Don Harwin, with the support of the Greens, the Shooters Party and the Christian Democratic Party.  The inquiry will look at the impact of donations on the democratic process and the advantages and disadvantages of a ban on corporate and union donations and of introducing expenditure limits. It will report by the first sitting day in March 2008. There has been continuing controversy in NSW over developer donations and their potential impact on planning laws and planning decisions.

Parliamentary administration compared

June Verrier, currently a visiting fellow at the Audit has an interesting paper on parliamentary administration in the Australasian Parliamentary Review Vol.22(1), Autumn. Comparing experience in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, she argues that, contrary to much opinion, improved corporate governance will not, of itself, increase parliament’s independence or effectiveness. An underpinning commitment is necessary to the kind of administrative and budgetary arrangements needed for independence, the best-practice model being a cross-party parliamentary commission.

Government communication in Australia

Audit contributor, Sally Young (University of Melbourne) has published a timely edited collection on Government Communication in Australia (Cambridge Univ. Press). The book covers issues including how governments use spin, new media and expensive government advertising to influence reporting and public opinion. It includes chapters by other Audit contributors including Graeme Orr, Brian Head, Peter Chen, Rachel Gibson, Sarah Maddison and Katherine Gelber.

The pillars of power

Audit contributor David Solomon AM (University of Queensland), has published The Pillars of Power (Federation Press). The book examines changes in Australian political, legal and regulatory institutions, including the growth in prime ministerial power, the downgrading of parliament and the remaking of the federal system. It draws on 50 interviews with politicians, administrators and other observers.

27 July 2007

WA boundary changes

The Western Australian Electoral Distribution Commissioners have released their proposed new electoral boundaries on 29 June, following a period of public comment—these proposed boundaries are the first under WA’s one vote, one value legislation. The Commissioners’ web site contains the various maps, submissions, and process timeline. Objections to the proposed boundaries need to be submitted to the Commissioners by 30 July, with the final boundaries being published on 29 October 2007.

20 June 2007

Human rights for WA

The Western Australian Government has released a draft Human Rights Bill that draws on both the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006. A consultative committee chaired by former Fraser Government Minister Fred Chaney has called for submissions by 31 August 2007. Australia remains the only western democracy without a national Bill of Rights but action is at least proceeding at the sub-national level.

  • Click here for more information, including a discussion paper and the draft bill.

Prisoner disenfranchisement

The Roach Constitutional challenge to prisoner disenfranchisement (Roach v Electoral Commissioner & Anor) is being heard in the High Court in Canberra.

Brian Costar, Professor at Swinburne University, spoke for five minutes on an episode of Perspective on Radio National on 4 June 2007 about it.

Fundraising at Kirribilli

Revelations that Prime Minister John Howard has been using official residences, Kirribilli House and The Lodge, to host Liberal Party events has sparked controversy. The Australian Electoral Commission has ruled that the rent-free use of Kirribilli House by the Liberal Party did not constitute a ‘gift’ that should have been disclosed under electoral rules.

Tightening the rules for voters

The Audit’s Norm Kelly and Audit adviser Colin Hughes (Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Queensland and former federal Electoral Commissioner) were both interviewed for Radio National’s Law Report on 12 June 2007 on the changes to federal enrolment requirements. The Government has claimed that the changes are necessary to ensure the integrity of the electoral roll. But that integrity was not seriously in question before the changes and the new provisions are likely to deny the vote to tens of thousands of otherwise eligible Australians.

  • Read or listen here

Offices of profit?

Audit contributor Peter van Onselen has published an opinion piece on the lack of rules in Australia governing the employment of ministers once they leave office. The latest example is Ian Campbell who has been appointed to the board of a company expected to tender for the smart card contract he had carriage of as minister. Canada, the UK and the US all have rules governing post-separation employment to prevent such conflicts of interest.

Independent Electoral Commission for Ireland

Following the Irish election Fianna Fail has negotiated an agreement with the Greens to enter a coalition government led by Fianna Fail and also including the Progressive Democrats. Apart from provisions for new climate change initiatives, the agreement includes the creation of a new independent electoral commission with responsibility for electoral administration and the creation of a new electoral register. The electoral commission will also take over responsibilities in relation to electoral expenditure from the Commission on Standards in Public Life.
Sydney Democratic Deficit event

The Sydney Democracy Forum is holding an event on the Democratic Deficit and Australia. The event will explore Australia’s democratic deficit and some novel ways for strengthening our democracy. Its three presenters are Dr Lyn Carson (University of Sydney), Dr Phil Larkin (Democratic Audit of Australia, Australian National University) and Professor Murray Print (University of Sydney).

This is a free event, which is open to SDF members and all other interested persons. For catering purposes RSVPs are required and should be sent to the SDF Program Coordinator (r.mueller@econ.usyd.edu.au or (02) 9036 5248) by Friday 22 June.

More information on the Forum and on this even can be found here.

29 May 2007

Amnesty International’s 2007 report critical of Australia

Amnesty International(AI) has published its report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2007. The Australian government is one of the ones singled out for criticism for adopting ‘the politics of fear’ in relation to asylum seekers. In addition to its refugee policies, violence against women and the counter-terrorism measures were areas highlighted as concerns.

Freedom of the Australian press

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has published its 2007 Report on Press Freedom. Disturbingly, the report finds that: ‘A creeping authoritarianism has been the hallmark of the past 12 months in the Australian press. Government and the courts continue to restrict what journalists can report and where they can go, criminalising the media’s professional obligations and wielding ever-greater unchecked power’.

Webscrubbing

New Matilda has an article on the way in which governments around the world are using their websites to rewrite history—or ‘webscrubbing’. Whilst the internet has allowed instant access to a vast amount of information, it also allows governments (and companies) retrospectively to edit embarrassing information from their websites and out of public view.

Investigation of public service and ministerial staff in Canada

The Canadian Public Service Commission has launched an inquiry into the movement of public servants between departments and ministerial offices and, in particular,  the possible impact on the impartiality—both real and perceived—of the public service. The inquiry follows the Commission’s investigations into two incidents where ministerial offices tried to influence the public service appointments process. Writing in the Public Sector Informant (May 2007), Jack Waterford highlights the relevance of the inquiry to Australia. Here  restrictions on the post-separation employment of public officeholders are less stringent than in Canada, with the onus placed squarely on the individual to avoid conflicts of interest or the taking of ‘improper advantage’ of their previous position.

Prisoner challenges disenfranchisement

Vickie Lee Roach, an inmate of the Dame Phyllis Frost Women’s Prison in Victoria has mounted a legal challenge to the government’s 2006 decision to remove prisoners’ right to vote. The challenge is on the basis that, under the Constitution, a citizen can only be disenfranchised on the grounds of mental capacity.

Government advertising

Following the controversy over the publicly-funded advertising campaign in support of its WorkChoices proposals, the federal government has launched another campaign—this time for its ‘fairness test—that can be criticised for the same sort of abuse of public funds for party-political ends. With a Bill still some time off, full-page advertisements have already begun to appear in the press in the context of the forthcoming federal election.
Audit contributor

  • Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham have a piece in the Age on it

US electoral administration

Eight US States are allowing electoral registration up to, and including, election day itself. The move has seen turn out rise, and no apparent problems with fraudulent registration. The latter was the justification for the 2006 changes to electoral registration in Australia, which will, it has been predicted, disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters.

Less encouragingly, the six-member Federal Election Commission, the body responsible for overseeing US campaign finance laws, is entering the presidential election season with three temporary members whose appointments have not been ratified, two members whose terms have expired but who have not been replaced, and one vacancy. The appointments process is likely to bog down in controversy, both partisan and across party lines, on issues like restrictions on campaign expenditure.

Charter of rights for Australia

George Williams, Professor of Law at UNSW and a member of the Audit’s Academic Advisory Committee, has published an updated version of his book, A Charter of Rights for Australia. Australia is alone amongst democracies in having no national bill of rights: Williams argues that the matter has become more urgent in recent years.

Law and liberty in the war on terror

The Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW is hosting a symposium on Law & Liberty in the War on Terror. The event is on the 4, 5, and 6 July 2007 at UNSW. Speakers include the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock MP.

Human rights conference

The Law School at the University of Melbourne is hosting a conference ‘Protecting Human Rights’ on 25 September 2007.

29 March 2007

NSW election 24 March 2007

The Iemma Labor government was returned in the NSW State election, but in an interesting development almost a third of the Legislative Council vote was for minor parties or Independents.

The Democratic Audit snapped photos at two polling booths

An Independent Speaker for NSW Parliament

An interesting development of the election is that Premier Morris Iemma has reportedly given the post of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to the Independent member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay. The Speaker is supposed to be impartial in overseeing the conduct of parliamentary business and so appointing an Independent should bolster this impartiality.

Commonwealth whistleblower found guilty

On 27 March a former Customs officer was found guilty of leaking information about flaws in security at Sydney airport and faces up to two years in prison. The leaked information was published in the Australian and led to a major upgrade in security. The Australian has commented that public servants who leak information about flawed public administration deserve medals not criminal convictions. The Commonwealth provides least protection to whistleblowers of all Australian jurisdictions.

FOI legislation ‘woeful’

FOI expert Ric Snell has said that the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act ‘performs woefully’ in important respects. Whilst requests for access to personal information are generally being responded to swiftly and positively, requests for information relating to policy are systematically failing and the situation appears to be worsening: 46.3 per cent of requests for non-personal information were rejected in full or in part.

Disclosure failure forces minister’s resignation

Queensland Senator and Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro has been forced to resign his post and his seat, following revelations of undisclosed share deals. When he was initially pulled up for his failure to disclose a share trade in a biotechnology firm, he blamed an oversight. But he has subsequently been revealed to have had some 72 other such ‘oversights’. The issue of whether ministers should be able to hold and trade shares is a contentious one: even outside their portfolio, they can have access to information that can directly benefit them and can participate in cabinet discussions that can affect their value. Putting shares out of reach in ‘blind trust’ for the duration is one option. Transparency through disclosure is a minimum safeguard against such potential conflicts of interest, and Santoro’s commercial dealings should have been disclosed on the Register of Members’ Interests.

The accessibility of the Register of Members’ Interests is also an issue. At the moment, the registers are held by the Parliamentary Clerks’ departments, available for inspection in person. But in Westminster and the Scottish parliaments and in New Zealand, a version of the register is available on the webpage. This one of the measures recommended by ICAC in the wake of revelations that the then-Leader of the Opposition in NSW, John Brogden, had asked parliamentary questions whilst working as a public affairs consultant for PwC, and which was apparently disclosed reluctantly (and partially) following media probing. However it appears to have been kicked into the long grass for the foreseeable future.

Proof of ID

The proof of identity (POI) requirements introduced as a result of last year’s amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act have come into force. From 16 April 2007, people wishing to enroll or to amend their enrolment details will be required to prove their identity by providing a driving licence number or, in the absence of driving licence, to prove their identity in other prescribed ways.

War on allowances

An article in the Canberra Times drawing on Democratic Audit data has highlighted the ‘mutually assured incumbency’ resulting from increased federal parliamentary allowances and lax rules governing their use. MPs are now permitted to use the resources received for electorate work for party political purposes and to roll over unspent allowances for use in an election year. Independent MP Peter Andren and Democrat Senator Andrew Murray have been leading critics of this trend.

Parliamentary privilege blocking WA corruption inquiry

The WA Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) has been forced to suspend its inquiry into possible misconduct by members of the Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations. Evidence suggested that two members of the committee were being manipulated to hold an inquiry to benefit clients of Brian Burke and Noel Crichton-Browne. The Labor President of the Legislative Council has refused to hand over documents to the CCC on the grounds of parliamentary privilege. The parliament is instead holding its own inquiry, which will not have access to the CCC’s phone tap and other material.

Read more in The Australian

An elected House of Lords?

British MPs have voted in favour of an entirely elected House of Lords. Though the vote was not binding, the strength of the backing for an entirely (or almost entirely) elected upper house has sent a clear message to government. The proposals were subsequently strongly rejected by the House of Lords.

UK party funding

The report of Sir Hayden Phillips’ review of party funding in the UK was published in March 2007. The report calls for caps on donations and greater transparency about party income. However, many of the recommendations are tentative, reflecting disagreements between the main parties about the nature of the problem and the preferred solutions.

Coinciding with the Phillips report, Audit contributor Keith Ewing, professor of law at Kings College, London, has published his own investigation into the subject, The Cost of Democracy, in which he argues that spending caps are a more effective means than donation caps for reducing the British parties’ reliance on large donations.

It is published by Hart.

2 March 2007

Senate votes against accountability measures

Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Murray recently moved a motion in the Senate, noting last year’s Canadian reforms in the area of accountability. The Canadian reforms cover the issues of political donations, whistleblower protection and restrictions on Ministers and staffers engaging in lobbying work after they have left office. Senator Murray’s motion called for the government to consider whether Australian legislation sufficiently addresses these issues of transparency and accountability. The motion was defeated on government numbers.

To see how your Senators voted, look at Hansard, p.13, here
Crime and Corruption Commission transcripts

The hearings of the Western Australian Crime and Corruption Commission inquiry into former WA premier Brian Burke and his associates are coming to an end, with two State ministers being sacked in three days as a result of evidence from phone taps. Three ministers in all have been sacked as a result of the inquiry.

The transcripts of the hearings are available from the CCC website


The independence of electoral administration

Audit contributor and former Australian Electoral Commissioner, Professor Colin Hughes, is giving a Senate Occasional Lecture on ‘The independence of electoral administration’. The lecture will cover the development of the Australian system of electoral administration and consider the level of independence achieved.

Admission is free, inquiries to the Senate Procedure Office (Tel. 02 6277 3074; Email. Research.sen@aph.gov.au)

When: Friday 23rd March 2007, 12.15 – 1.15
Where: Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra

ACT electoral compendium

The ACT Electoral Commission has published an Electoral Compendium, full of information about the electoral process for the Territory. It is available from their website.

14 February 2007

Party funding figures revealed

The Australian Electoral Commission has disclosed the donations from companies to the political parties for 2005-06, the financial year during which the threshold for disclosure was raised.

The full returns can be found on the AEC’s website, but some of the largest donors to the federal parties are as follows:

Liberal Party
Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd – $200 000
Westfield Holdings Ltd – $160 000
ANZ Banking Group limited – $100 000
Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd – $100 000
Kingold Group Companies Ltd – $100 000
Walker Corporation Limited – $100 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $65 000
Paul Ramsay Holdings Pty Ltd – $53 000
Goldman Sachs JBWere – $50 000
Gunns Ltd – $50 000
Leighton Holdings – $50 000
Resmed – $50 000
True James Erskine – $50 000
Phillip Morris – $35 000
Coca-Cola Amatil – $32 500
British American Tobacco Australia – $25 000
Adsteam Marine Services Ltd – $20 000
Wesfarmers – $10 000

Total Receipts (includes other receipts): $4 212 557

Labor Party:
CFMEU Mining & Energy Division – $100 000
Westfield Capital Corporation Ltd – $100 000
ANZ Banking Group limited – $50 000
Leighton Holdings Ltd – $50 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $40 000
Coca Cola Amatil – $40 000
Adsteam Marine Ltd – $20 000
Profile Ray & Berndston – $15 000
Wesfarmers Limited – $10 000

Total Receipts (includes other receipts): $3 785 737

National Party:
Manildra Group of Companies – $31 000
Adsteam Marine Ltd– $20 000.00
Philip Morris Limited – $20 000.00
British American Tobacco Australia – $16 600
Wesfarmers Limited – $10 000
Leighton Holdings Limited – $10 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $10 000

Total receipts (includes other receipts): $900 177.00

Australian Democrats:
Under official AEC definitions, the Democrats received no donations this year.

Total receipts (includes other receipts): $144 642

Crikey has a review of the disclosures that also lists the details from the States and Territories (subscription required)
Silencing Dissent

A new book, Silencing Dissent, edited by Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison, and featuring a number of Audit contributors, claims the Howard Government has sought to undermine and discredit, not only independent and dissenting opinion, but also the dissenters themselves. It provides evidence of bullying, intimidation, personal attacks, withdrawal of funding, and manipulation of the rules in order to limit public debate. The victims have included charities, academics, researchers, journalists, judges, the public service, and even parliament itself.

Links

- Publisher’s web page

- The SMH’s review

– and The Australian’s

Freedom of information?

The Sydney Morning Herald carried a bizarre story illustrating the shortcomings of the current FOI framework. Herald journalists were faced with a prospective bill for $13 000 from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for making a decision on whether various papers relating to the welfare-to-work might be released. They went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a discount on public interest grounds but were denied it on the grounds that FOI requests were part of the newspapers’ normal commercial activities.

  • The full saga can be found here:

House of Lords reform proposals

The UK government has published a White Paper outlining proposals for a partially elected House of Lords. Reforms eliminating the right of almost all hereditary peers to sit in the second chamber were introduced in 1999, and were generally expected to be the first step in the introduction of an elected Lords. But in 2003, all the options for introducing an elected component were rejected. The government currently favours 50 per cent elected, with 50 per cent remaining appointed, though the Lords are expected to reject this. However, it has been reported that Gordon Brown, the favourite to succeed Tony Blair, will force through reform making the Lords entirely elected, once leader, if these proposals are blocked.

Re-thinking Westminster

The Audit’s Norman Abjorensen spoke on ABC Radio National’s Perspective program on 31January 2007, on the South Australian Rann government’s rewriting the Westminister system of government by appointing non-Labor members to his cabinet.

Several minutes in duration, you can read the transcript, listen online or download the MP3 (right-click and ‘save as’) and listen later.

Going backwards? Women in federal politics

In the run up to International Women’s Day, women’s presence in the federal Cabinet has been reduced from three to two (Senator Helen Coonan and Julie Bishop). Women now make up 11 per cent of the federal Cabinet (2 out of 18) and 13 per cent of the ministry as a whole (4 out of 30). This compares poorly with countries such as Sweden, Norway, Spain and Chilé where women make up half of Cabinet.

Australia has also slid to its lowest-ever place in the league table of representation of women in national parliaments compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The latest figures (30 November 2006) show Australia to have dropped to 33rd place internationally, down from 15th in 1999. The ranking is based on representation in the lower house of the national parliament.

Women are somewhat more evident on the federal Labor front bench, making up 7 out of 31 shadow ministers (23 per cent), and with Julia Gillard as Deputy Leader. On the other hand, women’s presence in the Victorian Labor Cabinet dropped from seven to four (35 per cent to 20 per cent) after the election in late 2006.

The Audit will be publishing a major new report, How Well Does Australian democracy Serve Women? in advance of International Women’s Day. The report, prepared by Sarah Maddison and Emma Partridge, finds that while Australia was once a leader in the global struggle for gender equality, many of the achievements have been undone in recent years. Inquiries about advance copies should be made to the Audit project manager on daa@anu.edu.au.
End of year deregistration of 19 political parties

On 27 December 2006 19 political parties were de-registered when Schedule 3 of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 came into effect.

The purpose of the deregistration was to eliminate liberals for forests. In the JSCEM inquiry into the 2004 federal election it was alleged that voters were misled into believing liberals for forests had some connection to the Liberal Party. In particular, liberals for forests were blamed for the Coalition’s narrow loss of the seat of Richmond.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act was promptly amended in 2004 to prevent the registration of new parties with names that might lead a reasonable person to assume a connection to an already registered party. However, liberals for forests were already registered—so the new provision for deregistration was included in the 2006 Electoral Act amendments. The deregistration of 19 parties to achieve the deregistration of one seems somewhat extreme and contrary to the encouragement of pluralistic party competition and access to the ballot paper. At least reregistration without fee can be achieved within the next six months as long as the parties still satisfy the requirement of having 500 members and comply with the new naming provisions.

The parties de-registered were:

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (NSW Division)
Help End Marijuana Prohibition
Hope Party – ethics equality ecology
liberals for forests
New Country Party
No Goods and Services Tax Party
Non-Custodial Parents Party
One Nation Queensland Division
One Nation Western Australia
People Power
Progressive Labour Party
Queensland Greens
Republican Party of Australia
Socialist Alliance
The Australian Shooters Party
The Fishing Party
The Great Australians

* Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Parliament of Australia. The Australian Electoral Commission had initially refused the registration of liberals for forests but the decision was overturned by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2001.

Skewing electoral competition

The Special Minister of State, Gary Nairn, announced on 11 January that all federal members of parliament would be entitled to one extra staff member -ie four instead of three for party backbenchers and five instead of four for Independents.

Federal members of parliament serve very large numbers of constituents by international standards. At the 2004 election the average enrolment in federal electorates was 87 323 – far higher than the number that triggered an increase in the number of seats in 1984. By contrast, the average number of registered voters in the 2005 New Zealand general election was under 43 000 and in the UK under 68 000. At the 2004 Canadian election the average number of electors was under 73 000.

All of this adds up to an argument for more politicians or perhaps more staff to assist the existing ones to service their electorates. However, in the absence of guidelines restricting the activities of parliamentary staff, the increase of staff further skews electoral competition in favour of incumbents. There cannot be political equality and fair competition where the balance is weighted so much against new contenders.

The increase in staff, taken together with the increase in allowances that can be used for campaigning, such as last year’s increase in the printing allowance to $150 000 (plus allowable carryover) creates an immediate and unfair advantage for incumbent politicians in an election year. Other parliaments explicitly prevent the use of parliamentary allowances such as these for campaigning purposes. In Westminster, as well as in the Scottish Parliament, there are guidelines whereby staffers paid for out of the public purse are not allowed to canvass or campaign during working hours – they may take leave or campaign out of hours, or their salaries should be reimbursed by the parties for the relevant period.

Independent MP Peter Andren has announced his refusal of the extra staff allocation. Australia needs to start clearly distinguishing between the use of staff and parliamentary allowances for constituency and legislative work and their use to give incumbent politicians more than a head-start in electoral competition.

19 December 2006

Victorian Election, November 2006

Photos below were taken outside the Melbourne Town Hall and Brunswick Street, Fitzroy polling booths on election day by Peter Brent. Click any for enlarged popup.

The Age reported that the covert advertising campaign against the Greens by the conservative Christian group, the Exclusive Brethren, had continued in the Victorian election. This had aroused concern in the Tasmanian State election earlier in the year:

PM’s Chief of Staff leaves takes post with investment bank

Arthur Sinodinos, John Howard’s longstanding Chief of Staff, has left to take up a senior post with the investment bank Goldman Sachs JBWere. Sinodinos’ move has proved controversial because the company was involved with the most recent Telstra share floatation. Former public servants and politicians are prevented from moving straight into related private sector posts by ‘cooling off’ periods in many democracies, including Canada, the UK and the USA. This move, as well as former NSW Premier Bob Carr’s move to Macquarie Bank in 2005, has highlighted the absence of codes governing post-separation employment in a number of Australian jurisdictions.

The Cole inquiry reports

The Cole Inquiry into the AWB bribery scandal reported on 24 November 2006. The voluminous report (the summary and recommendations alone run to nearly 350 pages) concludes that responsibility lay entirely within the AWB and not with members of the government or the public service. Senior figures within the AWB had paid bribes to Iraq to secure wheat export contracts, and had consistently lied to cover themselves.

The report is, however, critical of the lack of adequate procedures for responding to suspicions of corrupt practice, a point taken up by Prof Pat Weller who argues, in a piece in The Australian, that even if ministers and senior public servants had not deliberately turned a blind eye to AWB’s dealings, they should have known what was going on:

Queensland corruption inquiry

The Queensland premier Peter Beattie has forbidden all Labor members from any dealings with the former Industrial Relations and Health Minister Gordon Nuttall. Nuttall stepped down in September 2006, after it was revealed by the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission that he had received a large undisclosed loan from the CEO of a coal firm lobbying for a road and rail diversion to one of its mines. He is currently facing a ‘fast-track’ expulsion from the ALP.

  • Read more in the Courier Mail, here and here

UK party loans

The controversy surrounding party finance in the UK has continued, as the full extent of the major parties’ reliance on loans has emerged. Labour and the Conservatives owe around £59 million (more than AU$147 million at the current rate of exchange). These private loans have come to light since a change to the Electoral Commission’s disclosure regulations: loans were previously hidden as the disclosure rules only covered donations. Many of the loans were effectively donations as they were never intended to be repaid.

Canada strengthens accountability

The Canadian Federal Accountability Act received Royal Assent on 12 December 2006. Under the Act. Under it:
• All corporate and union donations to political parties and candidates are banned;
• The amount an individual can donate to a party or candidate is reduced to $1000 p.a., as is the contribution an individual can make to their own campaign;
• A new Commissioner of Lobbying is created, as an Agent of Parliament;
• Ministers, ministerial staffers and senior public servants are prohibited from lobbying the Canadian Government for five years after leaving office;
• The role of the Ethics Commissioner and the Auditor General is strengthened;
• Transparency of the commissioning of public opinion research and advertising is increased;
• An independent Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal is created, to increase protection for whistleblowers.

November 17 2006

State corruption inquiries

The WA Corruption and Crime Commission’s investigation into the activities of lobbyists acting for developer Canal Rocks has now seen a minister sacked and forced to resign from parliament. Norm Marlborough, Labor Minister for Small Business is the latest victim. Undisclosed donations to various local government candidates by former Liberal power broker Noel Crichton-Browne were mentioned in the last Audit Update.

Much of the new controversy focuses on the activities of Brian Burke, the former WA premier, who like Crichton-Browne, was lobbying on behalf of Canal Rocks. Marlborough kept a separate mobile phone for talking to Burke and was taped apparently taking instruction on the appointment to a government board of a councillor thought to be sympathetic to the developer’s proposals.

Burke was gaoled for corruption in 1994 over fraudulent travel claims. Current WA Premier, Alan Carpenter, has warned his ministers against any dealings with Burke or his associates and a register of lobbyists is now being considered.

In Queensland, the state’s Crime and Misconduct Commission is investigating a government decision to bankroll a $20 million road and rail deviation to Macarthur Coal’s Coppabella Mine, after it was revealed that the company’s Chief Executive had loaned the then Industrial Relations Minister Gordon Nuttall $300 000. The loan was not disclosed in the official parliamentary register, and Nuttall had not abstained from any votes on the matter, nor had he declared a conflict of interest.

In Tasmania former Deputy Premier Bryan Green has been charged with criminal conspiracy (in Hobart Magistrates Court, 25 October) over giving a company run by former Tasmanian and Queensland Labor ministers a monopoly over accreditation of building professionals in the State.

Labor debates over developer donation ban

Senior Labor figures are divided over a ban on developer donations. NSW premier Morris Iemma has called for a ban, but Queensland premier Peter Beattie rejects the idea, arguing that transparency rather than source of donation is the issue. Former PM Paul Keating is critical of NSW Labor’s record on developer donations and planning decisions. NSW Labor has collected over $5 million in developer donations since its re-election in 2003, and, along with the Liberals and Nationals, voted down a Greens private members bill aiming to ban developer donations to political parties.

More in the Sydney Morning Herald

The issue of political donations was discussed by Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian

How to do US elections

Electoral expert Professor Richard Hasen writes in the New York Times on the problems with electronic voting machines in the US mid-term elections. He argues that the problem lies less with technology than with the people administering elections. Instead of party hacks, the US needs nonpartisan professionals such as those that administer Australian and Canadian elections.

More in the New York Times (free registration may be necessary)

Go to Rick Hasen’s Election Law blog .

6 November 2006

Government advertising campaigns controversy

In last week’s Senate estimates hearings, it emerged that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had omitted from its Annual Report any figure for expenditure on government advertising campaigns. There had in fact been an increase of nearly 50 per cent in such expenditure. The Government dismissed the omission as a mere oversight. The Opposition, however, were unconvinced, accusing the Government of concocting a ‘pathetic “dog ate my homework” excuse’.

  • Read the transcript from Hansard here

Electoral numbers drop

It also emerged in Senate Estimates that the number of Australians enrolled to vote has fallen for the first time in ten years. The Australian Electoral Commission was unable to provide a definitive explanation for the fall. It is too early for the recent restrictions on enrolment to have had an effect, though they are likely to exacerbate any existing enrolment problems.

  • Read the transcript from Hansard here

Secret ballot for the blind in Victorian election

Blind and vision-impaired voters will have the opportunity for the first time to cast a secret ballot in the Victorian State election on 25 November. Electronic voting will be introduced at six polling places on a trial basis, following the successful experiment at the last two ACT elections. Information on where to vote is being disseminated by Vision Australia.

Debate resumes on Citizenship Bill

Debate resumed in the House of Representatives on 31 October and for the next two days on the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005. Inter alia the Bill lengthens the waiting time for Australian citizenship from two to four years. The Bill is not expect to complete its passage through parliament before the Autumn session 2007.

Full details of the Bill, including text, explanatory note, proposed amendments, and the speeches from the second reading are available here


NSW Local Government Association supports a national summit on political finance

The NSW Local Government Association has supported the call for a national summit to review political finance legislation at federal, State and local levels of government. The national summit is being promoted by the Deputy Mayor of Manly and Convenor of Democracy Watch, Brad Peterson.

For the reasons why the role of money in Australian electoral politics needs to be reviewed see Democracy Watch


WA Public Funding Bill receives Royal Assent

Western Australia has now joined the Commonwealth, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT in having public funding for parties and Independents who achieve at least 4 per cent of the vote. The amount is indexed and set to reach $1.50 per vote by the time the next election is due, in 2009. It is not tied to any restrictions on private political donations.


Developer involvement in WA local elections

A former Liberal Party powerbroker operating on behalf of a property developer has admitted involvement in the election campaign for Busselton council in WA. Appearing before the Corruption and Crime Commission, Noel Crichton-Browne admitted attempting to keep payments to various candidates secret by paying them in instalments less than the $200 disclosure threshold, as part of a campaign to win planning approval for a $300 million development.


US election chaos?

Ahead of the US mid-term elections on 7 November 2006, and in the wake of the controversies over the result of the last two presidential elections, Jonah Goldman of the National Campaign for Fair Elections has written a highly critical essay on the state of electoral administration in America, which he labels ‘third rate’ and could result in nationwide ‘chaos’ at the polls.

This prediction is supported by the findings of a report by electionline.org, an election-monitoring body based at the University of Richmond. Issues relating to voting technology and its security, new ID requirements, and the objectivity of voting officials are identified as potential sources of problems and ten States identified as the most likely locations for them.

  • Read their report here

The New York Times reports that the parties are preparing themselves for the impending controversy by recruiting teams of lawyers to monitor polling in potential ‘flash points’.

  • Read New York Times article (free registration required)

26 October 2006

Electoral Amendment Act 2006

The AEC has published a short explanatory paper on the recent changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act. The controversial changes have, amongst other things, introduced the earlier closing of the electoral roll, stricter proof of identity (ID) requirements for registering and voting, and significantly raised the threshold for disclosure of political donations.

The AEC’s annual report for 2005-06 is also now available here.

Limiting Democracy

Former Victorian premier, John Cain, has a review of Brian Costar and Colin Hughes’ book on the changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act of June 2006. Australia is one of the only democracies where the rules governing political finance are being weakened rather than strengthened. Cain focuses on the changes to the rules governing disclosure of political donations, which, like the authors, he sees as a straightforward attempt to limit the transparency of the process.

The Audit’s Marian Sawer’s review of the book is available here.

New media laws and investigative journalism

There has been much discussion in the press about the likely impact of the changes to Australian media ownership laws on the diversity of information sources. The media editor of The Age suggests that the changes also threaten the existence of investigative journalism.

October 6 2006

Liberal Senator calls for ban on corporate donations to political parties

Senator Gary Humphries has called for a ban on corporate and union donations to political parties, as in Canada, on the grounds they are undermining confidence in politics. Humphries argues in the Liberal Party journal The Party Room that the current system of public funding should be extended and bring an end to private attempts to buy influence in the decisions of government.

The Audit on ABC

ABC Radio National’s ‘Perspective’ program will broadcast this Friday, 6 October, at 5.55pm a shortened version of the Audit discussion paper by the Norman Abjorensen on the recent banning of two Islamic books in Australia. (Update: Listen to the MP3 here.)

WA introduces proportional representation but retains property votes in local government

The West Australian government has introduced legislation to parliament that changes the voting system in local government elections from ‘first past the post’ to ‘proportional preferential’.

US voter ID/registration conference

The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project’s two-day Voter Identification/Registration Conference began on 5 October at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It explores the ‘current state of knowledge about the effects of voter identification and registration procedures on election administration and voting behaviour’.

While United States electoral administration is very different to Australia’s (and Australia, like New Zealand, has compulsory registration, while in America and Canada it is voluntary), many of the issues are instantly recognisable.

History of the Indigenous vote

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published a short History of the Indigenous Vote. It outlines Indigenous Australians’ achievement of the right to vote, its loss at federation, their regaining of the franchise in the 1960s and the more active engagement in the subsequent years.

  • It can be downloaded from the AEC here

Irish PM in loan controversy

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has been forced to apologise over loans he received whilst finance minister in the early 1990s. Whilst maintaining he has breached no rules, he admitted errors of judgement and was forced to apologise to parliament. The loans came to light following an investigation into corruption in the planning process in Dublin in the 1990s.

The erosion of electoral rights

Limiting Democracy: The Erosion of Electoral Rights in Australia by Audit contributors Colin Hughes and Brian Costar has been published by UNSW Press. More details at publisher’s website

  • Read review of the book by the Audit leader, Marian Sawer here

September 22 2006

Public funding comes to WA, also prisoner disenfranchisement

In Western Australia, the Labor government’s electoral reform legislation has passed the lower house. The original Bill has been split into three, to deal with the three main aspects of the reforms.

Public funding is being introduced for WA State elections, with the amount currently set at $1.39 per vote (with a threshold vote of 4 per cent required). This amount is set to increase to more than $1.50 by the time of the next election, due in 2009. The government is obviously serious about this—the funding rate is calculated to six decimal places (i.e. one millionth of a cent per vote). The legislation differs from the federal funding scheme in that parties will not be able to receive more than they actually spend in election campaigns. This isn’t a problem for the major parties, given they receive substantial corporate donations in addition to public funding, but can be a problem for minor parties who underestimate their likely vote and hence spend less than their entitlement.

At the WA Parliament website the legislation—Electoral Reform (Electoral Funding) Bill 2006—can be downloaded by PDF here. To find debates use the Hansard search page.

In associated legislation (Electoral Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 and Parliamentary Legislation Amendment Bill 2006), the Labor government is disenfranchising all prisoners (previously prisoners serving terms less than one year could vote), and broadening the definition of parliamentary party status. Party status provides additional resources, such as staffing, to those parties that qualify, and was previously available to any parties with five members in the Assembly. This is now being broadened to the Assembly and/or the Council. Labor resisted this last change during its previous term—when the Greens had five Council members. The Greens only have two now.

September 19, 2006

Australian polling day – always a Saturday

The Queensland State election 9 September 2006, photos taken outside the Brisbane Town Hall polling booth by Peter Brent. Click any for enlarged popup.

September 15 2006

Disallowance power damages ACT democracy

A Bill introduced by Senator Bob Brown to remove the Commonwealth’s power to disallow ACT legislation was debated in the Senate on 14 September 2006. Section 5 (2) of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act, 1988 provides that the Governor-General can disallow any law passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly within six months. There are no conditions that need to be satisfied before this power is exercised and the disallowance instrument merely has to be tabled in both houses of the federal parliament.

The Commonwealth has already disallowed the ACT’s Civil Unions Act 2006 and is now threatening to over-ride the ACT’s anti-terrorism legislation on the grounds that it is not tough enough (for example, not allowing children to be subject to preventive detention). With the government controlling the Senate, such disallowance of an elected government’s legislation cannot be prevented. By contrast, when the Commonwealth did away with the Northern Territory’s euthanasia legislation in 1998 it did so by use of its Territories power (section 122 of the Constitution), requiring a Bill to pass through both houses of parliament.

  • For more detail on the desirability of removing the disallowance power from the ACT (Self-Government) Act see Cheyne Bester and Shawn Lambert in the Canberra Times 15 September 2006

September 14 2006

Erosion of Electoral Rights

Limiting Democracy: The Erosion of Electoral Rights in Australia has just been released by UNSW Press. Australia’s electoral system is distinctive, independent and widely respected. For years, parties across the political spectrum have supported its main features – compulsory voting, an independent electoral commission, uniform rules across the nation. Yet, in 2006, all that began to change.

Because Australians have no explicit constitutional right to vote, parliament has wide discretion over how its members are elected. Having won control of both houses of parliament, the Howard government introduced legislation that erodes the right to vote and relaxes controls over political donations, all in the name of “electoral integrity.” Forced through parliament in mid-2006, these measures are dangerous for democracy.

In this book, Colin A. Hughes – Australia’s first electoral commissioner – and Brian Costar reveal the dangers of the government’s legislation, and of other potential changes flagged by government MPs. They trace the history of Australia’s admired electoral system, revealing the carefully crafted rules that have ensured a fair and transparent system – a system now endangered by a set of poorly considered changes.

UK Government Backs FOI Effectiveness Study

The UK government has helped fund an independent study by the Constitution Unit at University College London of whether the UK FOI Act has been effective in making government more accountable. UCL claim this is the first large-scale study of the consequences of FOI anywhere in the world.

  • Read more at IWR

September 7, 2006

High Court FOI ruling endorses government secrecy

Fresh doubts have been cast on the effectiveness of the Commonwealth’s freedom of information laws after the High Court, in a 3-2 decision, rejected an appeal by a journalist at The Australian newspaper against a decision to block access to Treasury documents. The documents sought by FOI editor Michael McKinnon, related to revenue projections from tax bracket creep, as well as fraud in the First Home Owner Grant.

Despite a dissenting judgement from Chief Justice Murray Gleeson and Justice Michael Kirby, a majority upheld a ruling by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that it did not have the power to decide whether the release of the documents sought by McKinnon was in the public interest.

August 31 2006

Reform of the Senate committee system

The Parliamentary Studies Centre and the Centre for International and Public Law, both at ANU, are holding a workshop to consider the Senate committee system on Friday 15 September in the Studio Theatre at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The timetable is:

  • 9.30-10.30 Views from the Senate: including Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate; Senator Marise Payne; Senator Joe Ludwig; Senator Andrew Bartlett.
  • 11am-12noon Views from ‘users’ of the committee system:
    Including Professor Jon Altman, ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research; Professor John Warhurst, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, ANU

August 30 2006

Political finance reform

New Matilda has an article by Greens NSW Legislative Council member Lee Rhiannon, and Norman Thompson, who runs her project on political donations, calling for a significant overhaul of the regulations governing political party funding. They argue that foreign donations and corporate and union donations should be banned, and caps on individual donations and campaign spending introduced.

Read article

Also on party funding reform, the Greens (WA) have produced this discussion paper on electoral funding reform, as part of the debate about the introduction of public funding for parties in the State.

Read Greens (WA) discussion paper
UK party funding controversy continues

The UK Electoral Commission has criticised both the Labour and Conservative parties for being overly secretive about their private funding. The Conservatives’ reluctance to make more detailed disclosures about their loans has been a particular source of concern for the Commission.

Read Guardian article

Parliamentary inquiry into civics and electoral education

A team from the Democratic Audit appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on 11 August 2006, as part the ongoing inquiry into civics and electoral education. The transcript and the written submission are available from the Committee’s webpage:

Go to committee webpage
Appointments to public boards

Meredith Edwards, Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra, has written a comprehensive analysis of the appointments process to public boards in Australia. Australia has yet to embark on the significant reform of the process seen in countries such as the UK and Canada, where change was seen as vital to maintain any confidence in the integrity of the system.

Read Issues paper

August 10 2006

Human rights charter for Victoria

Victoria has become only the second jurisdiction (after the ACT) to enact a human rights charter. The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 was passed on July 25th 2006, and comes into force in January 2007.

Renewing Accountability

A group of former senior MPs from both major parties have released a discussion paper calling for a strengthening of the capacity of parliament in Australia to hold government to account. Various measures are being taken in other Westminster parliaments with the aim of improving the accountability process but Australia is lagging. Amongst the steps they call for are the appointment of a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, and special legislation clarifying government accountability to parliament.

  • A piece in The Age summarises the main findings.
  • In the same paper, Michelle Grattan has an article discussing the report and its recommendations.

Ministerial resignation in Tasmania

Bryan Green, Tasmanian Deputy Premier, has resigned from all frontbench and leadership roles following a scandal involving his relationship with a company run by his former colleagues. Mr Green granted a three year monopoly to the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, a building accreditation company run by two former Labor ministers. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Auditor General are investigating the matter. Mr Green had initially resisted resigning and maintained that his apology to parliament was sufficient.

Queensland electoral law changes

The Queensland government is planning major changes to its electoral law in the wake of the Federal changes and claims of bribery of local councillors. The detail of the changes has yet to be decided though it has been confirmed that, in line with Federal law, prisoners will lose the right to vote.

July 26 2006

The Senate under government control

Australian Democrat Senator Andrew Murray has compiled figures on the scrutiny and legislative review process in the Senate since 1 July 2005 and compared it with previous periods where no party had overall Senate control. On every measure considered – length of time for committees to consider bills, acceptance of non-government amendments, use of the guillotine to curtail debate; rejection of references to committees – there has been a weakening of legislative review functions.

Internal party democracy?

After the furore surrounding the role of factions in Labor’s preselection process in Victoria earlier this year, now it is the Liberals’ turn. ABC’s Four Corners program on 17 July 2006 focussed on attempts by the far right to dominate internal processes in the New South Wales Liberal Party, and the nefarious tactics used by both major factions in the party in their internecine battles.

  • The transcript of the broadcast is available here:

The program has produced considerable comment, such as this piece by Anne Davies in The Sydney Morning Herald.

John Keane on democracy and political parties

Australian-born, UK-based political theorist John Keane considered the shortcomings of political parties in a piece in The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 July 2006. He argues that the stranglehold that parties have on the representative process is the central cause of modern disillusionment with the political process:

The State of Democracy at IPSA

The Democratic Audit of Australia organised two panels on State of Democracy methodology in July at the International Political Science Association Congress in Fukuoka, Japan. The papers, by those involved in Democratic Audits in different parts of the world, are all available here

Axing of Senate committees to limit scrutiny

In the last sitting week before the winter recess the Government proposed controversial changes to the committee system in the Senate. Under these changes the number of committees will be reduced and the opposition-chaired references committees abolished. This will leave all the committee chairs in government hands. The government has claimed that the references committees are under-utilised, which has been a reality since the government achieved its majority in the Senate. Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has suggested that removing the part of the committee system under opposition control might lessen the reluctance to refer controversial issues for committee scrutiny. However, the opposition parties, and Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate, have said that there is a serious danger of undermining the Senate’s capacity to hold the government to account; any inquiries with the potential to embarrass the Government are likely to be vetoed.

    June 26 2006

The Democratic Audit of Australia is hosting two panels at the International Political Science Association Congress in Fukuoka on 11 July. The papers include the following:

June 26 2006

JSCEM civics inquiry

The submissions to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry into Civics and Electoral Education can now be viewed on their website. Naturally, we would draw your attention to the Democratic Audit’s contribution, amongst the numerous interesting submissions from a wide variety of individuals and groups.

Link to Inquiry

June 15 2006

Draft Electoral and Referendum Amendment Bill
The Draft Electoral and Referendum Amendment Act is being debated again in the Senate this week and is still attracting controversy and criticism.

Writing in The Age, George Williams of the Gilbert & Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW calls it a ‘major step backwards for our electoral system’.

Read Williams column

Also in The Age, Human Rights Solicitor Waleed Aly attacks the measures contained in it that strip prisoners of their right to vote.

Read Aly column

Harder to vote, easier to donate

Australian Policy Online has published an article by Marian Sawer, Director of the Audit, that criticises the trajectory of electoral reform in Australia. The Government is simultaneously making the process of political donations less transparent, whilst making it harder for people to exercise their right to vote.

Read Sawer article

Dirty tricks in US electoral administration?

An article in Rolling Stone magazine Robert F. Kennedy Jnr has caused much comment in the US and beyond. He alleges that George W. Bush’s victory in the 2004 Presidential election was the result, in part, of dirty tricks by partisan electoral officials in Ohio. These range from: voter registrations mysteriously lost, or even shredded; late or missing ballots for US voters overseas; maldistribution of voting machines and ‘suspiciously’ malfunctioning voting equipment.

At least some of the claims in the article have been dismissed. However, it does draw attention to the problems created by partisan electoral administration. Even after the controversy surrounding the 2000 Presidential Election it seems lessons have either not been learnt or are being deliberately ignored.

Read the Kennedy article here

And a couple of the many responses to it here and here

Federalism undermined on ACT civil unions

The Federal Government has used its power to disallow Territory legislation to over-rule the ACT’s Civil Unions Act 2006. The disallowance took effect from midnight 13 June. Moves in the Senate by the Democrats, Greens and Labor to block the disallowance were unsuccessful, despite Liberal Senator and former ACT Chief Minister Gary Humphries crossing the floor. The use of administrative action to overturn legislation, for which the ACT government had an election mandate and which was within its powers, has been highly controversial. Critics see it as another attack on the principles of federalism.

Electronic voting in Victoria

Following an inquiry into Electronic Democracy, the Victorian Government has introduced measure to facilitate electronic voting in State elections. Peter Chen, the co-author of the forthcoming Audit report on Electronic Democracy, was a consultant on the inquiry.
http://www.peterjohnchen.com/files/FinalReport.pdf [2.5mb]

Votes at 16 in the ACT?

The ACT Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education, Training, and Young People is holding an inquiry into the desirability and possible consequences of allowing 16 and 17 year old ACT residents to vote in Territory elections. Amongst the issues under consideration are:

national conformity and consistency with other jurisdictions;
the legal implications of compulsory enrolment and voting for young people;
eligibility for election to the ACT Legislative Assembly;
resource implications of extending and maintaining the ACT electoral roll;
issues affecting the electoral awareness of young people;
different electoral models; and
other factors that influence the democratic participation of young people.

The deadline for written submissions to the inquiry is 28 July 2006.
http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/committees/index1.asp?committee=53&inquiry=222

Victoria FoI Review

The Victorian Ombudsman has produced the final report of a review of implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982. The review found that FOI requests were, for the most part, being answered in full and within the official 45 day period. However, delays in processing were still an issue, with some 30 per cent of requests not responded to within the statutory time frame in February 2006. This was, however an improvement over the 44 per cent in 2003-04. The lack of quality in reasons for decisions was also an issue, as was the poor level of assistance to applicants.

Overall, the review found that, of the 22 500 FOI requests made in 2004-05, full access was given to 77 per cent, partial access to 20 per cent, leaving only 3 per cent refused.
http://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/CA256F88000946E3/page/Listing-Home%2BPage%2BNews-Review%2Bof%2Bthe%2BFreedom%2Bof%2BInformation%2BAct%2Breleased

Public funding for parties

With public funding of political parties proposed in Western Australia, Senator Andrew Murray (Democrats) argues, in this Audit discussion paper, that a quid pro quo is required in the form of higher standards of governance, transparency, and accountability, from the parties that receive it.

Read the paper

Party funding remains a controversial issue in the UK, where the Committee on Standards in Public Life is conducting an inquiry into the integrity of democratic processes, through a review of the mandate of the Electoral Commission. The Committee’s inquiry has, in particular, highlighted the extent of the ignorance surrounding the huge loans which the Labour and Conservative Parties have been using to circumvent party funding regulations.

Read BBC story

Go to the Committee’s webpage

More general concerns about party funding in the UK have led to the establishment of an inquiry into the possible introduction of public funding.

Inquiry link

May 26 2006

Are our politicians for sale?

Richard Baker in The Age reports on the increasing trend for the parties to sell access to their leaders to stock the party coffers. The current Electoral Amendment Bill will make this, and other sorts of corporate donations far less visible, raising serious concerns about the potential for corruption.

The Democratic Audit’s focused Audit on Political Finance and Government Advertising, By Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young, which is cited in The Age article, will be published later this winter.

Public funding for parties in WA?

The issue of party funding is also current in Western Australia, where the introduction of public funding for parties contesting State elections is again being considered. Public funding should reduce the reliance of parties on private donations and allow smaller parties to compete more effectively. However, the concern is that this move will simply add to, rather than replace, the current system of donations, whilst its efficacy in levelling the playing field for smaller parties is dependent on the thresholds that are set.

Australian Bills of Rights: The ACT and Beyond

The ACT Human Rights Research Project, at the Regulatory Institutions Network at the ANU and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW are holding a one-day event in Canberra that will assess recent developments in Australian Bills of Rights. The conference will survey the impact of the ACT Human Rights Act over the last year in the courts, legislature and the bureaucracy. It will also look at the proposed Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities in Victoria, at developments in other States and at the national level, and the comparative perspective from New Zealand. The day is aimed at both a legal and non-legal audience.

When: Wednesday 21 June 2006

Where: Law Theatre, Faculty of Law, Australian National University

Cost: $150 (including lunch), $60 for concessions

Registration forms and program are available at http://acthra.anu.edu.au/, or ph Gabrielle McKinnon on 6125 7103.

New Version of the Australian Government and Politics Website

The new version of the Australian Government and Politics website is now on line and includes the final results for the March South Australian and Tasmanian elections. As well as a new server and updated software, the website is undergoing a major overhaul and has enhanced information on NSW politics and government thanks to a grant from the NSW Sesquicentenary Committee. It is hoped to add similar additional information to entries for the other States and the Commonwealth.

May 16 2006

Electoral changes pushed through House of Representatives

After minimal debate on 10 and 11 May, and three gag motions, the government’s changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act were pushed through the House of Representatives on 11 May 2006. The Democratic Audit has expressed serious concern over the impact of these changes, which include early closure of the electoral roll and raising the threshold for disclosure of political donations.

Independent Peter Andren moved two sets of amendments, the first of which were supported by the ALP and related to early closure of the roll and prisoner franchise. The second set proposed eliminating the above-the-line option on Senate tickets in favour of partial preferential voting below the line. This change would require preferences to be expressed by voters for as many seats as to be filled, rather than for preferences to flow in accordance with party deals few voters know about. The current above-the-line option of party ticket voting is chosen by about 95 per cent of voters, because otherwise they have to mark preferences for all candidates below the line-a very laborious process. In NSW in the 2004 federal election, voters would have had to mark 78 sequential preferences to register a formal Senate vote below the line. It is not surprising that 97 per cent decided not to do this, even if it meant their preferences then flowed in directions they might not have approved of.

Andren also proposed introducing an expenditure cap of $50 000 for federal candidates, with an exception for those standing in the largest electorates ($72 000). Such expenditure caps would do much towards creating a level playing field for electoral competition. Andren also proposed lowering the disclosure threshold for political donations, rather than raising it, and requiring the written authority of the candidate for any gifts or expenditure on their behalf. This set of amendments was supported only by the three Independents in the House. The government’s Bill is due to be debated in the Senate when parliament resumes on 13 June.

While the Australian government may be making it ‘harder to vote but easier to make secret donations to political parties’, the new Conservative government in Canada is moving in the opposite direction. It has introduced amendments to the Canada Elections Act that will introduce a limit of $1000 (previously $5000) on the amount an individual may contribute to a party or candidate in a given year and totally banning contributions by corporations, trade unions or associations (previously a limit of $1000). The changes are to be found in Bill C-2, which had its First Reading on 11 April 2006: ‘An Act providing for conflict of interest rules, restrictions on election financing and measures respecting administrative transparency, oversight and accountability’ (short title: Federal Accountability Act).

Government cuts Senate estimates

The Senate has voted to weaken its ability to scrutinise the government after it passed government measures to axe the Senate Estimates spillover days. The Estimates hearings could previously continue onto Fridays if business demanded it. The government used its narrow Senate majority to push through the changes. Both Labor and the Democrats have condemned the move, claiming that the government is reneging on its promise not to abuse its majority in the Senate to curtail the scrutiny process. The government defended its move by claiming that the time available for scrutiny was broadly comparable with other countries.

Compulsory voting

Following the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matter’s recommendation that compulsory voting be scrapped, the Australian Electoral Commission has published this review of the arguments and includes some information from abroad.

Ironically, the influential British think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Reform, has recently recommended that compulsory voting is the best solution for the ongoing problem of poor turnout.

Less freedom more violence for media workers

A report just published by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) complains of an anti-media environment which it blames on the growing legislated controls on media freedom. It also expresses concern that media workers are increasingly the targets of violence. The issues are raised in the MEAA’s second report into the state of press freedom in Australia launched on 28 April 2006 at the Australian Press Freedom Dinner in Sydney.

Unfairness in asylum decision

In a piece for New Matilda, Julian Burnside QC criticises the Government’s decision to process asylum applications from ‘boatpeople’ off-shore. Not only is the move massively more expensive, but also infringes basic human rights in order to appease the Indonesian government. He goes on to criticise the Government’s industrial relations and national security reforms.

UK civil liberties ‘rebalance’

In the, Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for a ‘profound rebalancing’ of the civil liberties debate in the UK. ‘Despite our attempts – and we have made many of them – to toughen and reform the criminal justice system … the criminal justice system is the public service most distant from what reasonable people want’, he said.

A brief history of sedition

This e-brief from the Parliamentary Library provides an overview of the development of sedition law in Australia, including the recent changes made under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2005.

Promoting democracy – a review

The Dutch Government has published a study of efforts to promote democracy and to bridge the gap between voters and elected representatives that they say has emerged throughout the established democracies of the developed world. The study reviews the programs of 18 OECD countries, including Australia, and, whilst the conclusions drawn are aimed at the Netherlands, they will have resonance in all the countries studied.

Conference on legislatures and human rights

The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies is hosting an international conference exploring the role of legislatures in protecting human rights 20-22 July 2006.

April 13 2006

Italian ex-pats vote

Ousted Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is contesting the result of the Italian election in part because so many Australian-based voters tried to vote preferentially, spoiling their ballots.

The general election held on 9–10 April 2006 has produced a change of government with Romani Prodi’s centre-left coalition evidently triumphing in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Prodi’s coalition was the plurality winner for the Chamber of Deputies by the smallest of margins—some 25 000 votes out of an electorate of 47 million. This translates, however, into 55 per cent of the seats in the lower house thanks to the bonus arrangement whereby a plurality winner is allocated no less than 340 seats.

The controversy that has prompted the Berlusconi challenge relates to the result in the Senate, where Prodi’s coalition has won a narrow, two-seat majority by winning four of the six newly created seats for expatriate voters. Melbourne’s Nino Randazzo, long-time Editor of Il Globo, was one of the newly-elected Senators who decided the outcome.

The global campaign manager for Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia has pointed to the 10 698 spoiled ballot papers cast in Australia, 27 per cent of the total, as a possible ground for a recount. Some voters spoiled their ballots by numbering the candidates as they would in an Australian election, rather than putting a cross against a single, preferred candidate.

New Italian electoral law provides 3.5 million expatriate Italians with their own representatives—12 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six seats in the Senate. Expatriate Italians have four geographical constituencies, Europe outside Italy, South America, North and Central America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Italo-Australians dominate the latter electorate, with 120 000 out of the 200 000 voters.

Apart from Senator Randazzo, Melbourne-based Marco Fedi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Both are committed to pursuing issues relating to pensions and reacquisition of Italian citizenship. Their electorate stretches from the west coast of Africa to the Pacific Islands and north to Mongolia.

Observers will have been watching the innovations in expatriate representation carefully, not least in Australia where expatriates can only enrol on the overseas voters’ register if they intend to return to Australia within six years. In 2004 the Audit published a paper by Andrew Leigh, arguing for a Senator for Expat Australians.

Electoral Commission shifts position

Audit contributor Brian Costar and Peter Browne, both of Swinburne Institute for Social Research, consider the role of the Australian Electoral Commission in the current passage of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment Act. They criticise the Commission’s apparent shift in position over the current Electoral Amendment Bill, that will see early closure of the electoral roll. Previously the Commission had provided evidence that early closure of the roll would not improve its accuracy, because less time would be available for voters to got on the roll or correct their enrolment details. Now the new Commissioner says it will make their life easier.

  • Norm Kelly, former Audit manager, and former Democrat member of the WA Parliament, reviewed the draft Bill and its implication for On-Line Opinion

The Senate’s Finance and Public Administration Committee published its report on the draft Electoral and Referendum Bill on 29 March 2006. The Committee finds little to disagree with in the Bill, in spite of a considerable volume of evidence critical of it (including submissions from several Audit contributors). However, both the Labor and Democrat members of the Committee were sufficiently dissatisfied with the Report to produce more critical dissenting reports.

Former Democratic Audit project manager, Norm Kelly, has provided a summary and commentary on the Bill

In a recent Canberra Times article, he criticises the provisions relating to the disclosure of political donations and their tax deductibility status.

And a new research report by the Parliamentary Library suggests major parties would, based on average for the past seven financial years, disclose the details of about two-thirds (64.1 per cent) of their total declared receipts if the threshold were increased to ‘more than $10 000′, as the draft bill proposes. Under the current threshold, they disclose the details for three-quarters of their total receipts (74.7 per cent). However, past figures may not be a useful guide to disclosure under the higher threshold. A higher threshold may encourage existing donors to change their behaviour; they may choose to split their current contributions, thereby negating the need to lodge a return.

Report on disclosure of political donations

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) published the report on its inquiry into the disclosure of donations to political parties and candidates. Despite running for two years, the report is a short one, and in agreement with the thrust of the draft Electoral and Referendum Bill, towards more generous disclosure thresholds. But, as with the Senate Committee’s report on the draft Bill, the ALP members and the Democrat member submitted dissenting reports.

Read the report

ACT Civil Union Bill

The ACT Chief Minister (and Attorney General) Jon Stanhope has introduced the Civil Union Bill, which would give gay and lesbian couples the same rights under ACT law as married partners. The day after its introduction on 28 March, the federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, wrote to the Chief Minister saying the federal government would overturn the legislation unless it was redrafted to distinguish civil unions from marriage. The federal Attorney-General objected to the use of federally registered marriage celebrants to officiate over civil unions. The Commonwealth has previously overturned the Northern Territory’s euthanasia legislation in 1997. This was the subject of a conscience vote in federal parliament and the ACT Chief Minister is insisting that the Civil Union legislation be treated in the same way.

ACT Anti-Terrorism Bill

The ACT government is also on a collision course with the federal government over anti-terrorism legislation. The ACT legislation introduced this week differs from laws in other States and Territories in refusing to permit 16-year-olds to be detained without charge and in forcing police to meet a higher threshold before preventively detaining suspects. The ACT Chief Minister has insisted that the anti-terrorism legislation must comply with the ACT Human Rights Act and with international obligations such as those under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The AFP Commissioner and the federal Attorney-General have claimed that the legislative differences would expose the Territory to a terrorist attack.

The ‘quiet revolution’ in Indigenous Affairs

Bill Gray and Will Sanders of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU, have released a discussion paper entitled Views from the top of the ‘quiet revolution’: Secretarial perspectives on the new arrangements in Indigenous Affairs. It is based on interviews with 11 members of the Commonwealth government’s Secretaries Group on Indigenous Affairs about the new arrangements dating from July 2004. It concludes that whether the new arrangements work will ultimately depend on relationships between government and Indigenous communities built over extended periods of time.

Read the discussion paper

Tasmania and South Australia vote

State elections were held in both Tasmania and South Australia with the sitting ALP governments both retaining control. We’ll be publishing a paper on the South Australian election by Haydon Manning and Geoff Anderson of Flinders University next month.

The most controversial development to emerge from the Tasmanian election was the alleged involvement of the secretive Christian group, the Exclusive Brethren. They are accused of being behind a smear campaign targeting the Greens, though the negligible disclosure rules regarding funding of political campaigns in Tasmania mean that it is hard to be sure about the extent of their involvement.

The issue is discussed in The Australian.

International Women’s Day

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day (8 March 2006) International IDEA has launched a new edition of its well-known handbook: Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. The focus is on giving women elected to parliament the means to make a greater impact on politics. It includes a case study on the Inter-Parliamentary Union co-authored by Australian Sonia Palmieri. There is also a review of new trends in gender quotas by Drude Dahlerup.

Chapters can be down loaded from the IDEA website

How the UK brought human rights home

In an article for New Matilda, Kate Beattie examines the experience of the United Kingdom with its Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) and the lessons for Australia. She finds that one of the most important aspects has been the requirement that Ministers issue a statement concerning the compatibility of Bills with the HRA and the subsequent scrutiny by the well-resourced Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The reports issued by the Joint Committee have had a significant influence on legislation.

Read the New Matilda article

Upper House for Queensland?

The University of Queensland’s Centre for Public, International, and Comparative Law, and the Faculty of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast are hosting a conference considering whether accountability in Queensland would be better served by re-establishing an upper house. The conference, which has an impressive range of speakers from politics, the public service, and academia, takes place on April 21, and, ironically, comes in the wake of the Mike Rann’s successful election campaign in South Australia which, amongst other things, promised to abolish the State’s upper house.

Read about the Conference

Clerk of the Senate defends estimates process

Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, addressed the National Press Club on 11 April 2006 on ‘Senate estimates and the Government Majority in the Senate’. In it, he warned against any neutering of the Senate estimates process, which plays a central part in the government’s accountability to parliament.

Political donations

Democrat Senator Andrew Murray has established a new website monitoring donations to political parties. Senator Murray was one of the participants in an Audit workshop on Political Finance and Government Advertising held in February 2006.

March 8 2006

        • Electoral reform

Gary Nairn, Special Minister for State, has defended the Government’s proposed reforms of the Commonwealth Electoral Act in a piece in The Canberra Times.

        • British democracy inquiry reports posted 8 March 2006

The Power inquiry into the health of UK democracy reported on 27 February 2006. Whilst addressing the UK, the findings will have resonance elsewhere, including Australia.

The report concludes that, contrary to much opinion, the British public is not politically apathetic, in spite of falling voter turn-out and party membership. However, the public does feel excluded from the policy process, and poorly served by party politics, with the electoral system perceived as unequal.

Amongst the 30 recommendations are concordats redistributing power away from ministers to Parliament and local government; 70 per cent of the House of Lords to be elected; public funding and caps for individual donations to parties; electoral reform (away from first-past-the-post) to encourage small parties and Independents; the right for citizens to initiate new laws and public inquiries; and the requirement for MPs to produce annual reports and hold AGMs with their constituents.

The full report and the executive summary can be found at Power webpage: http://www.powerinquiry.org

        • UK postal voting concerns posted 8 March 2006

The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives has reignited the debate about postal voting in the UK, with warnings that the forthcoming local elections risk being marred by a further postal voting controversy, after several councillors were found guilty of electoral fraud in the 2004 elections. The problems arise because of the way local party activists collect postal votes and place them on the voters’ behalf. Whilst the aim may be to boost turn-out, the fear is that votes not cast in favour of the party handling them may be ‘lost’. [The government has introduced new legislation to deal with postal voting fraud that will come into effect before the May 2006 local government elections.]

        • Women in parliament: paradise postponed posted 6 March 2006

The Treasurer, Peter Costello, has called for Australia to create the most ‘female-friendly environment in the world’. Marian Sawer finds, however, that Australia has just slid to its lowest place ever in the league table of women’s representation in national parliaments and a major factor has been the Liberal Party’s failure to preselect women.

February 28 2006

Independent Candidate Advisory Network

In October 2005, the three independents in the House of Representatives – Peter Andren, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter – founded the Independent Candidate Advisory Network (ICAN) to encourage and assist independents to get elected to state and federal parliaments. The website was launched this month. Among the ICAN website’s features is an ‘ Independent’s Tool-Box’, a guide to everything from getting nominated to managing the campaign budget and handling the media. Two weeks ago, the organisation featured in a Senate Committee question from Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce to the Australian Electoral Commissioner.

Visit the ICAN website

February 10 2006

Nice work, if you can get it

Anne Davies, Damien Murphy and Elisabeth Sexton report in the SMH on the lack of codes for post-ministerial employment in Commonwealth and NSW jurisdictions. They describe a number of recent cases where Ministers have gone immediately into private sector jobs close to their ministerial portfolios, despite warnings from corruption bodies about the practice. Canada and the United Kingdom, and other Australian jurisdictions such as Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, have recognised the problem and adopted such codes. In 2004 the Democratic Audit (Report No 3) recommended that codes governing post-separation employment of ministers be adopted in all Australian jurisdictions. Read the article.

Political donations revealed

The Australian Electoral Commission’s latest political donations disclosures have generated a lot of comment:

The single largest donation, $1,000,000 from Lord Ashcroft to the Liberals, was also the most controversial: Ashcroft is a former treasurer, and current Deputy Chairman of the British Conservative Party but also, controversially, holds dual nationality from Britain and the tax haven of Belize, for which he was the permanent representative at the UN. Concern was expressed in Britain about his role in politics there, given his continuing close relationship with a foreign government. Despite claims by the Liberals that Lord Ashcroft has a close affinity with Australia, it seems that he has no particular association with it beyond that of keen visitor. His contribution has naturally raised questions about the role of foreign donations to political parties in Australia. Read more in The Australian. (Last checked Feb 10 2006.)

Crikey has carried a more detailed analysis of the disclosures, including a list of the largest ten donors to Labor and the Liberals:

10 Largest Donors to Liberals

Lord Michael Ashcroft KCMG – $1,000,000.00
Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd – $200,000.00
Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd – $200,000.00
Village Roadshow Limited – $200,000.00
Croissy Pty Limited – $175,000.00
ANZ Banking Group Ltd – $100,000.00
Mistral International Pty Ltd – $100,000.00
Walker Corporation Pty Ltd – $100,000.00
Wesfarmers Ltd – $100,000.00
JP Morgan Administrative Services Pty Ltd – $82,500.00

Total Receipts: $29,477,988.00

10 Largest Donors to Labor

CFMEU Mining & Energy Division – $470,000.00
Shop Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association – $300,000.00
CFMEU Construction & General Division, National Office – $200,000.00
Village Roadshow Limited – $200,000.00
Westfield Capital Corporation Ltd – $175,000.00
Canberra Tradesmen’s Union Club – $120,000.00
AMWU – $100,000.00
Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd – $100,000.00
Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd – $100,000.00
Network Ten Pty Limited – $75,000.00

Total receipts: $29,989,686.00

In The Age, Joo-Cheong Tham, of Melbourne University’s Law School and the co-author of the Democratic Audit of Australia’s forthcoming report on Political Finance, criticises the role of corporate funding of political parties. He argues that at both State and Federal level, the parties are becoming dangerously reliant on corporate funding, and calls for tighter regulations around disclosure. Read the article.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Elisabeth Sexton argues that, in spite of the deluge of information from the AEC, the disclosures are still opaque and important information can remain hidden. Read the article.

Reshuffle

Last month’s cabinet reshuffle has seen Hon Sen Eric Abetz replaced as Special Minister of State (covering electoral matters) with Hon Gary Nairn MP.

High Court appeal allowed in important FOI case

On 3 February 2006 three judges of the High Court (Gummow, Kirby & Hayne JJ) granted special leave to appeal to the High Court against the majority decision of the Full Federal Court in McKinnon v Secretary, Department of Treasury (2005) 220 ALR 587.

The FOI appeal has been financed by News Limited in conjunction with a number of other media organisations. The case concerns the powers of the Administrative Appeal Tribunal to review decisions when a minister has issued a conclusive certificate, claiming the release of documents would be contrary to the public interest. The transcript of the hearing can be found here.

Blair defeated over religious hatred laws

The British Government was defeated in its attempt to introduce laws on religious hatred. The laws were designed to tighten a loophole that protects against discrimination and abuse against racial minorities, and covers Sikhs and Jews, but not Muslims. However, there were concerns that the laws would make legitimate criticism of faith, including much satire, illegal. A high profile campaign, which included high profile comedians such as Rowan Atkinson was waged against it. Ultimately though, despite a significant backbench revolt, the bill was defeated due to a miscalculation by the Labour Party Whips Office, who had thought it unnecessary to bring back a by-election campaign team for the vote. Ironically, the Government was defeated on one of the votes by just one, after the Prime Minister missed it.

The first defeat, by 288 votes to 278, was aimed at ensuring the new laws would not affect the current racial hatred laws. The second vote, which the government lost by 283 votes to 282, said the law should only criminalise “threatening” behaviour, not things which were just “abusive and insulting”. It also means people can only be prosecuted if they intend to stir up hatred – not if they are merely “reckless”.

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