Ideas for Your Submission to the JSCEM Inquiry
Deadline for submissions: Wednesday 16 February 2011
You can make your submission using our e-mail
template. Or you can make a submission by letter, fax or e-mail independently
of our site. Click
here for address details.
The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) leaves it to you
to identify the issues you would like to comment on, as long as they are within
the terms of reference of the Inquiry. For this Inquiry, the terms of reference
are very broad:
That the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquire into and
report on the conduct of the 2010 election and matters related thereto.
Some of the points you might like to consider in preparing your submission
are listed below. We suggest you print this page out and have it next to you
as you compose your comments using the e-mail
submission template on our website.
Not all the points below will be applicable to you. Some you may prefer not
to address.
The most important thing to remember is that the JSCEM needs to hear your
personal story and your individual experiences with the electoral system as
an overseas Australian.
1. Provide Background on your Circumstances
The Joint Standing Committee requires that you provide your name, current
postal address and phone number. You should also include your e-mail address.
For that reason, the e-mail message you will create using our E-mail
Submission Template cannot be sent if you do not complete the blocks
marked with an asterisk (*).
- How long have you been away from Australia and from what Australian subdivision
(electorate) did you come?
- Do you visit Australia regularly, have personal, family or strong business
links there, expect to settle back in Australia, have property or pay taxes
in Australia?
- How well do you keep up with Australian issues and how? (Media Internet
pages, journals, business or personal contacts, correspondence, etc.)
- Are there other family members living with you who are affected by the current
arrangements on overseas voting?
2. Enrolment and the Right to Vote
- When did you last vote in an Australian federal election and from where?
- Did you vote or try to vote in the November 1999 Referendum on the Republic?
The 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 Federal Elections?
- Are you currently on the Electoral Roll? (If you are not sure, click
here.)
- Were you already on the Electoral Roll before leaving Australia, or did
you seek to enrol after leaving? Were there difficulties in finding information
on the correct procedures to follow?
- Has your name at any time been removed from the Electoral Roll because you
did not know what you had to do to stay on the Roll while overseas?
- What is your view on the time limitations allowed under the Electoral Act
for:
(a) enrolling from overseas if you've dropped off the roll (within 3 years
of date of departure to live abroad);
(b) registering as an overseas voter if already on the roll (within 3 years
of date of departure); or
(c) remaining on the roll while overseas (6 years from date of departure which
can then be extended annually after the initial six years)
- Should any of these time limitations be changed or removed, and why?
- Is the current regime for overseas voting appropriate for a democratic
nation such as Australia in the 21st century?
- What are your views on the present arrangements that allow those overseas
to vote on a non-compulsory basis?
- If you are on the roll and choose not to vote at an election for whatever
reason, would it be fair to remove you from the roll? Or should you be asked
by the AEC for a response explaining the reason for not voting and indicating
your wishes about remaining on the roll or not?
3. Availability of Information on Future Elections
How good have you found the AEC or other Government agencies in providing
information about upcoming elections (Federal, State and Territory)?
- Was it readily available?
- Was it timely?
- Was it easily understandable?
- How did you become aware of it?
- Do you think that the AEC is adequately fulfilling its role vis-à-vis
overseas voters?
- Do you see ways in which improvements could be made?
4. Casting your Vote
What procedures were available to you to cast your vote from overseas in the
2010 Federal Election? (Postal vote; attendance at Embassy, High Commission,
or Consulate, etc)
- Was it convenient?
- Was it unduly expensive?
- Were there noticeable flaws in the system?
- Was there sufficient time available for the process to run its proper course?
- Have you noticed changes over recent times? (1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 and
2010 federal elections, Republic referendum in 1999, State or Territory elections)
- Did you feel you had sufficient information regarding candidates, policies,
etc on which to decide your vote?
5. Other Issues
- As an overseas Australian have you been penalised for failing to vote? Did
you feel that this was reasonable under the circumstances?
- If you lost Australian citizenship before 4/4/2002 under Section 17 of the
Australian Citizenship Act 1948 while it was still in force, but now
intend to apply for resumption, or have already resumed your Australian citizenship,
do you believe that you should also have a right to be newly entered on the
Electoral Roll once Australian again? If so, why?
- If you recently acquired Australian citizenship under the 2007 Citizenship
Act, have you been able to exercise a right to be enrolled? Have the current
provisions of the electoral legislation denied you, as a new Australian citizen,
the right to enrol? If so, do you believe that you should have that right?
- Do you believe that there are things to be learned, good or bad, from the
electoral processes of your present country of residence as they apply to
its expatriates, or the electoral processes generally? Outline the details
as applicable.
6. "No taxation without representation"
This is a commonly quoted slogan in support of extending the right to vote.
There is, however, the danger that the word "taxation' will be interpreted
in a very narrow sense to mean only income tax and, perhaps, company tax.
But in fact we elect our representatives at the federal, state and local government
levels to develop or amend legislation for regulating a very broad range of
matters, many of which have a direct impact on overseas Australians, their
families or friends. Perhaps not immediately but at some time in the future.
The legislative process and the administration thereof covers many things,
including:
- Taxation: Income tax (including Medicare levy), company tax, company licence
renewals, banking transaction taxes, capital gains tax (eg on the sale of
property), GST and other consumption taxes, land tax;
- Government charges: Citizenship and visa charges, passport fees, land rates,
utility charges, probate duties, airport and departure taxes, driving licence
fees;
- Government subsidies and payments: The welfare payments, education subsidies
and payments, payments to the states and local government, tax offsets, disaster
relief;
- General policy areas: Citizenship, immigration, multi-culturism, law and
order, education, health, environment, infrastructure, planning and development,
foreign affairs, trade, tourism, industry codes, banking and business supervision,
superannuation, aged care;
- Australia's overseas image particularly as it affects you as an "unofficial
ambassador".
In the 21st century perhaps the slogan should read "No legislation without
representation"!
7. Recent High Court Decisions on Voting
The Australian High Court's recent decisions on voting/disenfranchisement
in Roach
(prisoners) and Rowe
(early closing of the rolls) look at the circumstances in which it is appropriate,
or constitutional, for the federal parliament to limit by legislation a person's
qualification for enrolment and thereby their ability to vote.
In Roach, in considering the sections of the Constitution which demand
that the Senate and the House of Representatives be "directly chosen
by the people", Chief Justice Brennan found that "disenfranchisement
of any group of adult citizens on a basis that does not constitute a substantial
reason for exclusion from such participation would not be consistent with
choice by the people". He stated that Parliament's power to define the
exceptions to the right to vote was not unconstrained.
In view of the "substantial reason" test, which the court applied
again in Rowe in 2010, do you think that the current law on enrolment
for overseas Australians is constitutional? In other words, if expatriate
Australians who are not presently on the roll cannot enrol because it is more
than three years since they left to live abroad, can we say that a parliament
has truly been "directly chosen by the people"?
8. Your Conclusions
Your submission will have most impact if you are able to open with a brief
executive summary of the changes you would like to see in the Australian electoral
system with regard to its application to overseas Australians.
- What you think should stay as is.
- What you think should be changed.
Make your submission using our e-mail
template here!
Don't forget - the submission deadline is Wednesday 16 February 2011.
Further 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
· Direct Representation
for an Overseas Electorate
· Voting in Countries
Where You Are Not a Citizen
· Statistics
and Reports on Overseas Voting
Web Site by Spaghetti
Designs
© 2002-2008 The Southern Cross Group. All Rights Reserved.
.
