Labor “stealing elections”
Posted by Scott on Wednesday 29 April 2009 Categories: Politics Tags: Tags: AEC, ALP, ElectoralFraud, LiberalParty, MichaelRonaldson |
How’s the cheek of the Liberal Party accusing the government of undermining electoral integrity?
Senator Michael Ronaldson, the Shadow Special Minister of State, said that the fact that there were 1.2 million “missing” voters not on the electoral roll was a national disgrace.
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“The failure of Labor to fix this problem shows that they are not serious about the integrity of the electoral roll. The scope for fraud, multiple voting and stolen elections just seems to keep increasing under Labor.
“And it is no wonder that Labor don’t care. In Queensland, Mr Rudd’s home state, the ALP made an art form out of rorting, with several prominent Labor people being found guilty of electoral fraud by the courts.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) today admitted that ‘over 1.2 million Australians are missing from the electoral roll’ and that they would be writing to where they think about half that number may be living.”
That’s a pretty serious accusation there, Senator. Are you sure you want to accuse the government of deliberately trying to influence election outcomes? Besides from the fact that it’s extremely unlikely that the AEC’s day-to-day operations would be influenced by the government, how exactly has the Labor government changed the way that the AEC handles the electoral roll since their victory in late 2007?
Senator Ronaldson reckons that there needs to be an overhaul of AEC operations to strengthen our democracy.
“The Rudd Labor government must now act to end this national disgrace. The AEC needs more resources, better data collection and tougher laws – including dramatically higher penalties for those who fail to enrol correctly.
“We also need laws which will make people show ID when they go to vote, to prevent people fraudulently impersonating other people.”
Of course, Senator Ronaldson’s mob had eleven years to end this national disgrace given that the same weaknesses in the system existed during Howard’s reign, but what did the Liberals do instead to strengthen democracy? Not a peep about higher penalties for false enrollments or a need for ID when voting, instead they introduced legislation to disenfranchise first-time youth voters and prisoners in the name of electoral roll integrity. Voters who tend to vote Labor, completely coincidentally.


In July the new Senate will sit and the Labor government is facing trouble in the Upper House where their 32 Senators are significantly outweighed by the 37 coalition Senators. The five Greens are sure to side with the ALP on most issues, bringing the numbers of the loose “left” coalition up to 37 Senators — an even match with the Libs and the Nats. That leaves two men sharing the balance of power in Australia’s Upper House: South Australian independent Nick Xenophon and Family First’s Steve Fielding. That means that the Pentecostal Church, through Steve Fielding, holds the balance of power in Australian politics on the back of 53,302 Victorian votes. Ain’t democracy grand?