Fed: ALP and Libs call for electoral roll to be cleaned up
By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent
CANBERRA, Aug 13 AAP - The Liberal and Labor parties today urged the Australian ElectoralCommission (AEC) to do more to clean up the electoral roll before the next federal election.
In submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into the 2001 federal election, both partiesexpressed concern about the accuracy of the electoral roll.
Liberal Party federal director Lynton Crosby said the incidence of returned mail toMPs and candidates highlighted continued errors with the roll.
He said the AEC should send a personal letter to every one of the 12.6 million registeredvoters in the year leading up to an election.
"This would be a significant help in cleaning up the roll when all the undeliveredletters returned to the AEC are followed up," Mr Crosby said.
He also called for stronger laws against push polling, saying ALP candidates had rungpeople to tells lies about Telstra and the GST during the last election.
Labor, in its submission, called for new laws to make political donations more transparent,and for new rules to crack down on government advertising.
ALP national secretary Geoff Walsh also said the electoral roll needed to be improved,particularly for young people, homeless people and Aborigines.
Mr Walsh said of the 260,000 Aborigines in Australia, only about 140,000 were enrolledto vote. That amounted to 54 per cent, compared to 95 per cent of non-indigenous Australians.
He said up to 105,000 people were homeless in Australia, yet only 4,201 were enrolledunder the special category of itinerant electors.
He said the government spent $220 million to advertise the GST, and a further $150million on advertising in the year leading up to last year's election.
That included advertising on health insurance incentives, budget payments for pensioners,and $5 million to advertise the abolition of state-based financial institutions duties.
"The above campaigns were political in purpose and targeted swinging voters," Mr Walsh said.
"If the joint committee's guidelines had been in force these campaigns would not havegone ahead."
The AEC used its submission to warn the major political parties they faced legal actionunless they improved the way they processed postal vote applications.
Electoral Commissioner Andy Becker said political parties were often slow at forwardingpostal vote applications and voting material.
He said delays could cause voters to miss the deadline for postal votes.
At the same time he said new laws, which allowed political parties to canvass for postalvotes, had blurred the lines between political activity and the role of the AustralianElectoral Commission (AEC).
Mr Becker said 2001 federal election cost $67.3 million to conduct, with an extra $38.6million paid out in funding to political parties and candidates.
The ALP received almost $15 million, the Liberal Party $14.5 million and the NationalParty $2.8 million.
AAP jg/was/sb
KEYWORD: ELECTION NIGHTLEAD
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