Oz Politics Blog

What an interesting 24 hours. According to Michelle Grattan and Misha Schubert (also here), no sooner than voluntary voting had been proposed, the Prime Minister ruled it out.

“We are not considering it, we will not be proposing it for the next election,”

A clarification or two later, it appears that advocates for voluntary voting within the Liberal Party have the license to continue arguing their case within the party room. If they get lucky (which seems unlikely in the face of moderate Liberal and National opposition) it could become party policy after the next election.

From the SMH, the ABC, the Oz and the Courier Mailthe we learn that while voluntary voting is out, other reforms look like going ahead,

• optional full preferential, above-the-line voting for the Senate and (implicitly) primary vote thresholds before candidates or parties can be elected
• all prisoners serving a full-time custodial sentence would be struck off the electoral roll (currently prisoners serving terms under three years are not struck off)
• stronger identity requirements for people enrolling to vote and casting their ballot on polling day
• the electoral roll would close the moment an election is called (not seven days later as it does currently)
• the campaign finance threshold for anonymous donations to political parties would be raised from $1500 to $10,000
• the donation amount that could be claimed as a tax deduction would be increased
• financial disclosure rules for unions and non-government groups would be tightened
• a referendum on flexible four year parliamentary terms would be explored further
• electronic voting would be tested

Abetz’s opinion piece on Senate voting was in yesterday’s Australian.

Update: The full text of Abetz’s speech — Electoral reform: making our democracy airer for all — is now available.