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- 4 September 2002
Political Parties Registration
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The Hon. PETER BREEN [9.38 p.m.]: Tonight I would like to alert the House to a decision of Acting Justice Burchett in the Supreme Court regarding the powers of the Electoral Commissioner to refuse to register political parties under the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act. The 1999 amendments to the Act provide that political parties must have 750 members, and each member must sign a membership form to register the party. Registration is to take effect 12 months after the commissioner accepts the formal requirements of the legislation.
The question for Justice Burchett was whether a party named Save Our Suburbs qualified for registration. Although 750 members of the party had signed a membership form, the Electoral Commissioner was not satisfied that the formal requirements of the Act had been met. The commissioner made this decision on the basis that 75 per cent of the members of the party did not respond to a sample mailing in which members were asked to sign a form and return it to the commissioner in a reply-paid envelope. Justice Burchett ruled that the commissioner exceeded his authority under the Act and ordered registration of the Save Our Suburbs Party.
Unfortunately, the court did not make a ruling as to whether the commissioner can register a party retrospectively, which would allow Save Our Suburbs to field candidates at the March 2003 election. If the commissioner does have the power and Save Our Suburbs is registered, six other parties presently standing in line for registration will also get a guernsey for the March 2003 election. That will be an unfortunate consequence of Justice Burchett's decision because each of the six parties may be linked in some corrupt way to three other parties already registered under the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act. Those three parties are the Outdoor Recreation Party, the Horseriders Party and the Four Wheel Drive Party.
The six additional parties that may be corruptly linked to those parties are the Reconciliation Party, the Free Education Party, the Workers Party, the Environment Party, the Anglers Party and a party called Stop the Greenies. In other words, nine parties could be working together to secure a seat in this House and only three of those parties have satisfied the perfectly reasonable requirements of the Electoral Commissioner to demonstrate their bona fides to the people of New South Wales. Honourable members will be aware of the 1999 electoral rorts when more than 80 parties fielded candidates for this House in the tablecloth ballot paper. Many parties were not legitimately constituted in that election; they were simply a fraud committed on the people of New South Wales in order to channel votes to a few individuals.
That fraud was evident in the names of the parties, which were a ruse designed to give voters the impression that the names reflected the ideology of the parties. The intention of the people behind those parties was to draw support from votes at opposite ends of the political spectrum. I can demonstrate my point with the nine parties I referred to earlier. To the left of centre we have the Reconciliation Party, the Free Education Party, the Workers Party and the Environment Party. To the right of centre we have the Outdoor Recreation Party, the Horseriders Party, the Four Wheel Drive Party, the Anglers Party and Stop The Greenies. The people behind those parties are so brazen they believe they can get two seats in this House from both ends of the political spectrum. Alternatively, they hope to draw votes from legitimate parties using spoiling tactics.
This Parliament set out in 1999 to remedy the rorts of the tablecloth ballot paper, but the decision of Justice Burchett to direct the Electoral Commissioner to register Save Our Suburbs as a political party effectively means that the reforms have been circumvented. Grouping together large numbers of parties in joint tickets for the March 2003 upper House ballot paper will mean the tablecloth ballot paper and its rorts have not been addressed. I urge the Government to revisit the legislation and take whatever steps are necessary to determine the legitimacy of parties seeking to field candidates at the March 2003 election.
If any parties I have mentioned are fraudulent, or if the parties are corruptly linked as I have suggested, the appropriate course is for the Government to refer the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Any rorting of the electoral process is a fraud on the people of New South Wales and brings discredit on the democratic system of government. Several parties have legitimate links to other parties, and field joint tickets in an open and transparent way. The obvious examples are the Labor Party-Country Labor ticket and the Liberal Party-National Party ticket. Few people would say this arrangement is misleading or deceptive in the way, for example, that reconciliation and environment groups are linked as I have indicated.
Indeed, I am informed that Justice Burchett made certain observations about the membership of the Reconciliation Party which indicated he believed it is a party intended to represent indigenous people. Similarly, the Environment Party might be expected to represent people interested in protecting the natural environment. If the Reconciliation Party includes one indigenous person, and if one legitimate environmentalist is to be found in the Environment Party, I will convey my deep and respectful apology to the Hon. Malcolm Jones.
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