Discriminatory voter ID laws an attack on voting rights and must not proceed

The Morrison government’s proposed laws requiring people to provide identification when voting in a federal election will create new and unnecessary barriers that undermine the right to vote for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people experiencing homelessness, the Human Rights Law Centre warned today.

Evidence from the Australian Electoral Commissioner confirms the incidence of people voting twice in elections is “vanishingly small”. There is, however, evidence that voter identification laws would compound existing barriers to voting experienced disproportionately by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities and people experiencing homelessness.

Voting rates among those two groups are substantially lower than the rest of the population, largely because of the federal government’s under-investment in enrolling people and providing accessible information to them.

Alice Drury, Senior Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre, said:

“Historically, voter ID laws have been used as a dangerous and discriminatory tool to disenfranchise already marginalised groups. If passed, these laws would increase barriers to voting by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities and people experiencing homelessness — two groups needing more representation in our democracy, not less.”

Drury warned that the Morrison government should be prioritising laws which would address known problems with the integrity of Australian elections, rather than unnecessary laws that will disenfranchise communities.

“The Morrison government’s voter ID laws are a solution in search of a problem.

“If the prime minister is serious about improving the fairness of elections in Australia, he should introduce laws to ensure truth in political advertising and stopping billionaires like Clive Palmer spending a fortune to skew election results, not laws which compound inequality and suppress voter rights.”

Background

This morning, the federal government introduced the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Voter Integrity) Bill 2021 (Cth) into the House of Representatives. The laws would require people to provide a prescribed, valid form of identification to voting officers when attending a polling place to vote. If they don’t have any such documentation, that person can ask a friend or family member to attest to their identity - but that person must be able to provide ID that includes their address, which must match the address recorded on the electoral roll.

If a voter doesn’t have any acceptable ID on them, they can ask a friend or family member to attest to their identity — that person must be able to provide ID that includes their address which matches their address as recorded on the electoral roll. This would be impossible for someone who had attended a polling place alone, or if their friends don’t have identification with a current address.

In this situation, a person will be forced to fill out a declaration vote. However, the AEC’s current form for a declaration vote also asks for a person’s “permanent address”, as well as details of the person’s driver’s licence or passport, or for an enrolled person to confirm their identity.

Media contact:

Evan Schuurman, Media and Communications Manager, 0406 117 937, evan.schuurman@hrlc.org.au