Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters

REPORT ON PROCEEDINGS BEFORE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL MATTERS ADMINISTRATION OF THE 2019 NSW STATE ELECTION At Jubilee Room, Parliament House, Sydney, on Monday 18 November 2019 The Committee met at 10:00 am PRESENT Mr Lee Evans (Chair) Legislative Council Legislative Assembly The Hon. Robert Borsak Mr Christopher Gulaptis The Hon. Catherine Cusack Mr Paul Scully The Hon. Ben Franklin Mr Nathaniel Smith The Hon. Peter Primrose Ms Felicity Wilson (Deputy Chair) Monday, 18 November 2019 Joint Page 1 The CHAIR: Good morning and welcome to the first public hearing for the inquiry of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into the administration of the 2019 New South Wales election. Before we commence, I acknowledge the Gadigal people who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we are meeting here in Parliament. I also pay my respect to Elders past and present of the Eora nation and extend my respect to all other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are either present or are viewing proceedings on the internet. I declare the hearing open. ELECTORAL MATTERS COMMITTEE Monday, 18 November 2019 Joint Page 2 MARK LENNON, President, Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch), sworn and examined The CHAIR: I welcome Mr Mark Lennon, president of the Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch). Thank you for appearing before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to give evidence today. The committee has received submissions from your organisation. Would you like the submissions to form part of your formal evidence? Mr LENNON: Yes. The CHAIR: Would you like to make a short opening statement? Mr LENNON: I would. Can I thank the committee for the opportunity, on behalf of the Party, to make the submission and also to appear before you today. We are very fortunate that we live here in New South Wales, and indeed in Australia, in a very robust democracy and that our elections are considered to be—in the main— fair and free. In making that opening remark, can I also thank the hard working staff of the NSW Electoral Commission for the work that they did, in particular with regard to the election this year, but the work they continue to do over the intervening period between elections to make sure that we do have a fair and open democratic system. It is fair to say, in terms of process, that the election went very well. I cannot say the same for the result but that is not what we are here to discuss today. But as always there are areas to improve. The modern lingo is continuous improvement and after every election there are opportunities to review and suggest ways that we can improve the process. It can be summed up in our submission that there are three broad themes about how we could improve the system. They go to a couple of key elements. Firstly, more resources for the NSW Electoral Commission. That is not unusual. I think the Commission needs more resources and I will come back to that in a moment. Secondly, there could be more effective use of the resources that the Commission has. The third theme which runs through our submission is that in the area of compliance, we believe there are areas where compliance could be increased. There are other areas where compliance is probably too strict and there could be improvements in that area. So on those three themes if you look at more resources, we believe there needs to be more resources available to the Commission so it can properly investigate complaints as they arise, particularly during the election campaign period. We think more resources are necessary for ensuring that the disclosure system continues to work more effectively. Finally, in terms of more resources, there is no doubt there are issues with the training of staff. We believe this could be improved and that more resources should be dedicated to the issue of training. In terms of better use of resources, the Commission has to be congratulated for the use of technology. However we believe that can be used in better ways particularly with regard to the nomination of candidates. With relation to the early voting centres, we think those resources could be used more effectively particularly in terms of location. On the issue of iVote, more resources are also needed but clearly the present resourcing—in terms of technology and its use around iVote—could be used more effectively. As to compliance, we have covered a couple of key areas in our submission. With restrictions on early voting, we now have a situation where close to 30 per cent of people voted early for the election in March this year. This was up from around 10 per cent in 2011. In our submission, we say let us just acknowledge the reality and remove any requirements for early voting, acknowledge that people are voting early and that is part of the modern world. Limit the time but allow people to vote early as they are doing now, regardless of whether they have to give some reason or not. Clearly there has to be clarity on instructions around voting, with our system of the option of just voting 1 or voting with preferences. Finally, when it comes to compliance, we could enhance the time frame in terms of the reporting of donations and we mention that in our submission. The key elements—ones that keep coming up in discussions with Labor Party staff—are there needs to be more training of staff. It is a remarkable effort when you think about it. We have 93 electorates plus the upper House. To staff all those and to have people who are casuals filling all those roles, is a remarkable outcome. But there still needs to be more improvement around staff training. The one example that jumps off the page was the situation in the seat of Strathfield, where a volunteer who turned up to work as a volunteer for one of the parties ended up working for five hours on the polling booth. I do not know if she got paid but she should have by the way, as a former union official. In my 40 years, or thereabouts, of working and being involved in State election campaigns, I have seen some errors but that is the first time I have heard of that happening. Someone who actually was not employed by the Electoral Commission ended up distributing ballot papers. The other recurring theme is technology and the increased use of technology. We welcome the increased use of technology and we believe that the present technology could be better used, particularly in terms of disclosures and not having to have duplicates where not only do you nominate online, for instance, but you also then have to sign off on a form. Things of that nature. ELECTORAL MATTERS COMMITTEE Monday, 18 November 2019 Joint Page 3 In terms of overall resources, it would be remiss of me not to refer to today's report that the Audit Office has been asked to look at resourcing for a number of authorities including the NSW Electoral Commission. I hope that review comes out with a finding that there needs to be more resources for the NSW Electoral Commission not less. One last theme we need to consider when looking at the electoral process, is making sure the electorate is adequately informed about what the issues are, what the policies of the respective political players are and what are the main themes that they are taking to the election? People must understand what their rights are when it comes to vote, how they can vote and where they can vote? We have to ensure—and this is contained in our submission—that people with disabilities, those from non-English speaking backgrounds and those who are marginalised are given all the assistance they need to make sure they understand, firstly, the process and also the ability to cast their vote—given we have a system where voting is compulsory. As we go down the path of increased technology in the electoral process, it is important to ensure that electors are informed as a consequence because their avenue into the electoral process will increasingly be not through a mass-market—television, an advertisement or turning up to the polling booth—but will increasingly be through technology. We need to ensure that, firstly, they are well-informed of the issues and the issues outlined by each of the respective parties. Another issue that has arisen is making sure you, the body politic, have the opportunity to understand how people are voting and what processes they are using and the having opportunity to make sure that you have the opportunity to put your issues before voters when they vote, by whatever means available to them at the time. This is particularly an issue with iVote—that people are voting, the body politic does not know who is voting and they do not vote fully aware of all the policies and issues that the parties are putting forward. Finally, one observation: One of the things we should consider in the context of this election was that, for the first time I can recall, it was so close to a Federal election and, to some degree, it was overshadowed by the Federal election— not that I do not think New South Wales is not important, rest assured. I think that is something that you always have to put in context. When considering this particular election, it was often hard for people to focus on this State election because they knew there was a Federal election down the track.

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