The High Court today upheld a claim that will enable tens of thousands of Australians to vote in the upcoming election.
According to Associate Professor Graeme Orr of The University of Queensland, the decision is "welcome, but a big surprise."
"Since we don’t have a Bill of Rights, the Court’s tradition was to defer to Parliament, even over legislation that restricts voting rights," Dr Orr, of the TC Beirne School of Law, said.
"Today, the Court has recognised that the universal franchise has to be backed up with fair machinery to enable people to vote."
The case was run by the progressive lobby group, Get Up!
It invalidates a 2006 Howard government law that caused the rolls to close on the day a federal election is formally begun.
That law disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of citizens, especially the young and those in remote areas.
"The Howard government passed the law without any evidence that keeping rolls open after an election is called leads to any fraudulent enrolments," Dr Orr said.
"The Court requires restrictions on voting rights to be based on reason."
The result of the case, known as Rowe v Electoral Commissioner, means that those people who rushed to enrol when the election was called, or to update their addresses, will now be enrolled provided their forms reached the Electoral Commission within a week of the election commencing.
There are estimated to be over 100,000 of them: there would be more had people known the law would be overturned.
Despite the case, enrolment remained archaic in Australia, Dr Orr said.
"Part of the problem is that people cannot enrol online,", he said.
"We live in a 24/7 society. Parliament needs to ensure that people both have time to enrol after the election is called, and that we have 21st century enrolment procedures."
In New Zealand, by contrast, electors can enrol any time up until polling day.
"New South Wales and Victoria are moving to automatically enrol people, for example by using official data about school leavers.
"It’s unclear why the federal Liberal Party opposes this rational solution to the issue.
"Enrolment is compulsory in Australia: it should be as streamlined as possible," he said.
Media: Further inquiries:
Graeme Orr
0434 525 398
Dr Orr is the author of The Law of Politics (forthcoming, Federation Press)
