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Tell Government Your Overseas Voting Experiences!
The Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) is presently conducting an inquiry into the 2007 Federal Election. This is your chance to make your voice heard on voting and electoral matters as an overseas Australian, whether you voted in the 2007 election or not. Make a submission by the deadline of Friday 16 May 2008 using our e-mail submission template. We set out some ideas for your submission here.
Read our "What You Need to Know About Voting in Australia While You Live Overseas" brochure now. Download an A4 version here, and a US letter size paper version here.
For important current information on voting and enrolment, and links to the AEC website, as well as a summary of the SCG's advocacy work on the expat disenfranchisement issue to date, go to this page of our site.
Direct Representation from Overseas
Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 Australian citizens who still qualify to vote from overseas are enrolled for a particular Subdivision (electorate) back in Australia. Usually an eligible overseas elector has their name on the Electoral Roll for the Subdivision for which he or she last had an entitlement to be enrolled. In other cases, overseas electors will be on the Roll for the Subdivision for which their next of kin in Australia are enrolled, or with which they have the closest connection.
There are 150 Subdivisions around Australia. As of 31 July 2007, the number of enrolled voters in each Subdivision ranged from 55,417 (Solomon in the Northern Territory) to 121,702 (Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory).
2001 Data provided by DFAT, based on levels of consular activity, indicates that as at 31 December 2001, there were around 860,000 Australian citizens living overseas. If one in four of these expatriate citizens are below the age of 18 (as is the case with the population in Australia), then roughly 645,000 Australian citizens overseas would be of eligible voting age. If all these people had the right to enrol to vote, and chose to do so, in terms of numbers they could account for several new Subdivisions.
If all overseas Australian citizens had the right to vote, then would it
be feasible for expatriates at some point in the future to have their own
overseas Subdivisions, and their own Members of Parliament? Perhaps the idea
seems far-fetched, and Constitutional changes would be needed to make it a
reality, but we are certainly not the first to consider the concept.
South Australian Initiative for a Virtual Electorate
In August 2000, the South Australian State Government launched an "Information Economy 2002" Statement. The proposal included a strategy for a "Virtual Electorate", which was outlined in a press release of 17 August 2000.
The IE2002 Statement proposed the adoption of legislation to amend the South Australian Electoral Act 1985 to create a special "global" extraterritorial electorate for expatriate South Australians. Section 29 of that Act deals with entitlement to enrolment, and Section 69 deals with the entitlement to vote. The IE2002 Statement acknowledged that "global people networks are one of the key sources of competitive advantage in the Information Economy". It recognised that South Australia's extended population represents a significant asset and demonstrated a desire to forge links between expatriates and their home State.
It is important to note that Australian citizenship were a prerequisite for
expatriate voting rights under the South Australian proposal and would be
a prerequisite for voting in any Australian federal virtual electorate in
the future. Australian citizenship is of course a prerequisite for voting
under the current electoral system. In this respect, the repeal of Section
17 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948, which was achieved with
effect from 4 April 2002, so that Australian-born Australians no longer lose
their citizenship when they take on another, is important within the context
of the virtual electorate discussion, as are the changes introduced in the
Australian Citizenship Act 2007 which
came into effect on 1 July 2007, and provide an estimated
100,000 persons in the Australian diaspora with a new right to apply for Australian
citizenship.
Representation of Expatriates in Parliaments of Other
Countries
We have not exhaustively reviewed the situation in other countries to assess which governments already allow their expatriate communities to elect their own members of Parliament. However, according to a March 1999 Report by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, there are several European countries which already provide interesting examples. The Committee had this to say at that time:
49. As we have seen, a number of countries allow expatriates to vote in elections to the upper or lower chamber of parliament, but few provide them with specific parliamentary representation.
50. Portugal allows expatriates to vote by post for MPs in two "emigration constituencies" ("Europe" and "outside Europe") _ electing a total of four of the 230 members of parliament. A government proposal in 1980 sought to increase the number of emigration constituencies to three (Portuguese-speaking countries, Europe, rest of the world), each with three MPs, but was not debated in parliament. It was revived recently and has substantial backing within the Council of Portuguese Communities. Securing political rights and recognition of "dual nationality" were among the first recommendations made by the Council at its inaugural meeting in April 1981.
51. In Croatia twelve parliamentary seats have been reserved since 1995 for expatriates' representatives, who are elected proportionally from specific lists for a four-year term. The number of representatives may increase in the near future.
52. Although French nationals abroad are not represented in the Assemblée Nationale, Article 24 of the Constitution of 4 October 1958 provides for representation in the Senate, and twelve senators are elected for a nine-year term by the 150 members of the Senior Council of the French Abroad.
53. The bodies representing Italians abroad provided for in the Constitution, such as the Committees of Italians Abroad, are currently being reformed by the Italian parliament, which would like to grant them more importance. The most significant proposals for reform include guaranteeing the right to vote for Italian expatriates and introducing an electoral constituency with a representative elected by Italians abroad, since existing electoral legislation does not allow them to vote.
54. In Ireland too a constitutional amendment has been proposed, providing for the election of three members to the Senate (Seanad Eireann) by Irish emigrants. These would replace three of the eleven members currently nominated by the Prime Minister, leaving the present total of 60 members unchanged. However, this amendment has not yet been approved, a necessary first step before it goes to referendum.
Mention of a Separate Electorate for Overseas Australians in the June 2003 JSCEM Report
During the Inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) into the conduct of the November 2001 Federal Election, the Southern Cross Group put ideas forward in its submissions on this matter. In particular, in our supplementary submission of 18 February 2003, we outlined provisions in France for the representation of overseas French citizens by way of positive example.
The question of a special electorate for overseas voters was mentioned on pages 73 and 74 of Chapter 2 of the JSCEM's June 2003 report. It should also be noted that Senator Murray voiced his support for the concept of a "whole of Australia" seat for Australians resident overseas at the Inquiry hearing held on 20 September 2002.
2004 Inquiry into Australian Expatriates
Various submissions in the 2004 Inquiry into Australian Expatriates including those by the SCG, touched on matters concerning voting by overseas Australians, virtual electorates for expats and the measures other countries have in place for their diasporas.
A Senator for Expat Australians
Read the July 2004 discussion paper for the ANU's Democratic Audit of Australia by Andrew Leigh entitled New Voting Rights for the Australian Diaspora, which proposed granting expatriate Australians separate political representation by creating a Senate position for the Australian International Territory.
Lowy Institute Report November 2004
The Lowy Institute's Paper 04 of late 2004 entitled Diaspora: The World Wide Web of Australians, also contained a short chapter on engaging the diaspora in Australian democracy.
Representation of the Italian Diaspora
A December 2006 paper for the ANU's Democratic Audit of Australia by Elisa Arcioni discusses the Italian solution for its diaspora.
More Information
Other pages in the Overseas Voting section of our website will be of further help:
· Overview
· Current Limitations
in the Law
· Are You Disenfranchised?
· Help Us Extend the Right
to Vote
· Voting in Countries
Where You Are Not a Citizen
· Statistics
and Reports on Overseas Voting
Further documentation on voting for can be found in the Overseas Voting folder of our Archives.
