We were saddened to hear of the recent death of Glenn
Rhodes. Through his work at the AEC and the Queensland Electoral Commission,
and through his teaching at Griffith University, he made a very significant
contribution to electoral administration and its study in Australia. He was
also very supportive of the Democratic Audit over the years. Our condolences to
his family and friends. 

South Australian election

In this paper for the Audit,
Geoff Anderson and Haydon Manning of Flinders University review the election
and analyse the Rann government's commitment to abolishing the upper house and
inclusion of non-Labor members in Cabinet. They also examine South Australia's
unique electoral redistribution formula. 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060411_and_mann_elec_sa.pdf

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.
 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/200407_leigh_expat_rep.pdf
 

Electoral Commission shifts
position

In an article for The Age,
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.
 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/finding-fault-where-there-was-none-before/2006/04/03/1143916461858.html
 

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

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4323
  

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.
 

http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/pubs/evans/110406.pdf
 

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.
 

http://www.political-donations.org.au/
 

Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 

Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051

Watchdog independence
compromised?
In this new Audit discussion
paper, Peter Van Onselen (Edith Cowan University) considers the implications of
the WA government's decision to downgrade several independent watchdog posts.
The decision, affecting the Electoral Commissioner, the Commissioner for Public
Sector Standards, and the Information Commissioner, has obvious implications
for the standing of these posts within the public service and for the ability to
recruit candidates of the highest calibre to them in the future. But the role
of the WA government in the decision also raises serious questions about the
independence of these watchdog bodies, responsible to parliament, from the
government departments that they are supposed to scrutinise.

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060515_pvo_watchdog.pdf

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 (see the Audit website). 

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).  

See: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills.asp

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.

http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/compulsory_voting.pdf 

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.

http://www.ippr.org.uk/pressreleases/?id=2083 

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.

http://www.alliance.org.au/images/stories/pdf/2006_press_freedom_report.pdf  

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.

http://www.newmatilda.com//home/articledetail.asp?NewsletterID=210&ArticleID=1527&email=1 

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.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1775420,00.html 

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.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/INTGUIDE/LAW/sedition.htm 

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.

http://www.minbzk.nl/contents/pages/55271/promotingdemocracy.pdf 

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. Further details are available from:

http://cccs.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/research-and-publications/legislatures-and-human-rights-project/international-conference-on-legislatures-and-the-protection-of-human-rights/index.cfm

 

Dr
Phil Larkin
Democratic
Audit of Australia
Political
Science
Australian
National University
Canberra ACT
0200 

Tel:
+61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax:
+61 2 6125 3051