Electoral (Optional Preferential Voting) Amendment Bill
13/11/2013
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (20:45): I will speak this evening very briefly on behalf of Dignity for Disability to support the second reading of this bill. I will not rehash the issues that have led to the Hon. Mr Parnell moving this bill, for they are well known, nor some of the matters that have resulted in a flurry of activity from the Attorney-General in this space, and also the Hon. Mr Darley. We are certainly considering those members’ suggestions very seriously as well.
Suffice to say, there has been a lot of discussion from major and micro political parties, media commentators, psephologists, political junkies, and academics since the 7 September general election. In fact, I was on the radio about this very issue just this morning. I think that even some of the general electorate have twigged that their own votes are ending up in bizarre locations as a result of preference deals done through clever wheeling and dealing by some new and not-so-new players on the political block.
I appreciate that the Hon. Mr Mark Parnell has been consistent in his attempts to reform voting systems in this place, but I would like to note at this point that I have received the Electoral Reform Society of South Australia’s discussion paper of November this year and they feel that Mr Parnell’s bill goes not nearly far enough and amounts to tinkering around the edges. I would also note that it is my understanding that the Hon. Mr Parnell himself would prefer a more comprehensive reform, but is aware that a state election is upon us and we have only a few sitting days left.
One question that I would like to ask of the mover of this bill at this point, similar to an issue that the Hon. Mr Wade just raised, is how will this work if it is implemented for the 2014 state election? I understand that the Electoral Commission of South Australia uses a particular type of licensed software based upon our current electoral set-up. How would the provisions in the bill be implemented in terms of the computer systems that we need to count votes?
I add that I have also received that correspondence from the commissioner and I thank the Hon. Mr Wade for forwarding that to my office. It certainly has provided food for thought. I would like to restart the debate by putting that question to the Hon. Mr Parnell to answer at a later time. With those comments, and broadly speaking, I commend the bill to the chamber.
