Revisiting elections in Tasmania

Speaker 1 00:08

Up to you and me, to shine a guiding light and lead the way, united by our cause, we have the power to pursue what we believe, we'll achieve the realisation of our dreams. Hello and welcome once again to New Horizons, I'm Vaughn Benison, thanks for joining me.This week we focus once again on the electoral process in Tasmania, you might recall from October of 2022, we featured an interview with Duncan Meading, President of the Tasmanian branch of Blind Citizens Australia, here's a reminder, accessible voting has been a concern for some considerable time, why has it suddenly become an issue in Tasmania?

Speaker 2 00:54

I think this has been talked with the authorities by the blind and vision impaired community in Tasmania for quite a while. But it's really come to the fore because the voting has become compulsory. And that's then effectively meaning that people that can't vote are being penalized for being sent something that's inaccessible in the mail, not being able to vote, and then getting sent another letter that then says, you are now getting fined because we're discriminating against you. That's effectively what's happening.

Speaker 1 01:26

Are you aware of why this was changed, why it was made compulsory, and why it was done in the face of the fact that the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and all of the other electoral commissions across Australia would be well aware by now that people who are blind or vision impaired or have any print disability are unable to avail themselves of the obligation to vote?

Speaker 2 01:44

I think we just weren't thought about and you can have intentional discrimination or you can have unintentional discrimination, whether it's intentional or unintentional, it's still discrimination and that's what's happened through that sort of oversight from the authorities and that's what Blanc says is Australia Tasmania Branch and the disability forces Tasmania have both been really lobbying for and pushing for that that gets changed.

Speaker 1 02:13

Where have you got to at this point and what's been achieved?

Speaker 2 02:17

So we have got a transitional situation set up. There's been anti -discrimination claims, both in state and federal level lodged against the TEC. That's also been happening alongside a media campaign. And it was quite interesting because we had a meeting on a Sunday and then by the Friday we'd had resolution that the TEC was going to do a stop -gap measure effectively, a transitional situation where there would be impartial assistance offered for one or two days across the different council areas. And that is quite an amazing concession, but it's not enough. And we really need to see things change. Effectively, we got that situation because the local government act is very, very stringent about it being a postal vote.

So they can't do an electronic one. But, and it's also been this compulsory situation was also, it was news to the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and pushed through pretty quickly as well. So it's just a situation where the TEC is basically working within the parameters of the act at the moment and DVT, Disability Voices Tasmania, BCA Tasmania branch are both advocating with other organizations that the act needs to be changed and that we're going to work with the TEC to put in some recommendations of how that could happen in practicality sense and really trying to co -design that sort of concept and then make sure that it's not just a rush -through thing done in terms of changing the act, but the act has changed in accordance with trying to actually be inclusive and not discriminatory towards people with print disability.

Speaker 1 04:07

Let's talk a little bit about the stopgap measure as you refer to it. Explain the process, what do people need to do and how can they veil themselves of this opportunity to vote and what will they need to understand.

Speaker 2 04:18

Okay, so basically people should read the candidate statements that are up on the TEC website. Again, they've been quite collaborative in checking with Disability Voice Tasmania and BCA about the accessible nature of the documents and they've got quite an accessible HTML link to each council with the different candidates within those council jurisdictions. So I really recommend people go and have a look at that and then work out the, obviously work out how they're going to vote a bit before they go in. You can't just rock up. Basically make a phone call to the TEC, book in a half hour appointment, familiarise yourself with the candidates well beforehand and then go in and cast your vote with the sighted impartial assistant.

Speaker 1 05:12

So this is not to be clear a secret, independent and verifiable vote, but it is a way of being able to vote without involving your friends or family or people who you may not want to know for whom you're voting and how you wish to cast your ballot.

Speaker 2 05:27

Yeah so this is the closest thing we can get to an independent secret verifiable vote at this stage but it is not and we're very clear that that it is not but it is it is still a concession towards having it changed to have have something that's secret and independent verifiable. It is definitely better than what we had which was nothing.

Speaker 1 05:50

And we of course know that Tasmania is not alone in terms of having inaccessible voting practices. Work has been done by Blind Citizens Australia and other organisations to ensure that people can exercise their right to vote in most states of Australia. What's changed in Tasmania, may well you ask? I'm about to read you an opinion piece written by Blind Citizens Australia member David Morrell. Among other things, David Morrell was for some time the Vice President of the Tasmanian branch of Blind Citizens Australia.

This piece was published in the Northern Tasmanian newspaper The Examiner last Friday and reads, Democracy still broken by design for disabled Tasmanians. Australia's largest blindness service provider, Vision Australia claims, being able to cast an independent, secret and verifiable vote as such a basic cornerstone of Australian democracy that it is taken for granted and really discussed. Maybe so for most blind Australians, but not in Tasmania. Urgent action is needed to ensure people with disabilities are enabled to cast a secret, independent and verifiable vote. Local government elections are by postal vote.

In 2022, this prevented many Tasmanians from exercising their right to vote. The Electoral Commission says it won't advise the Minister what changes to the law are needed to rectify this situation unless asked. Yet, the Electoral Act empowers the Commission to advise on electoral matters. We again experienced this barrier to voting in the recent Tasmanian House of Assembly election, arising from either the Commission's unwillingness to exercise its enabling powers, or legislative limitations. Machines are available to voters who are blind or vision impaired, many of whom rely on public transport to access a polling booth. Yet, only three machines service the entire state. From the start of pre -polling, a steady pattern of frustration and exclusion was reported by voters with disability.

Consider James, a blind man whose full-preferencing vote was wrecked. There was a fault in the voting machine that the Electoral Commission was aware of, and an official without the training to work around it. I wonder, would the Electoral Commission roll out ballots for cited voters with the bottom part of the form misprinted or missing? And Jen, who lost a mighty fight with the voting machine. It wasn't very loud. The staff didn't know how to turn up the volume. I had to go through the ballot paper three times, and when I reached the end, my ballot paper wouldn't print. I had to get a staff member to tick the boxes.

That's two elections in a row. I wonder, do politicians know what sheer determination lies hidden behind some of the votes that empower them? Next, Mark, voting with the help of an electoral official. The official marked the ballot. My support worker was called in to witness this taking place. My vote was far from secret. I wonder, would the Electoral Commission call witnesses they didn't know for cited voters?

Then, we have David. After struggling into the building in his wheelchair, he found the single voting booth with a low writing surface already in use. He was directed to an unscreened table. Secrecy be damned. I wonder, would the Electoral Commission send walking voters to an open, unscreened table if it hadn't provided enough screened polling booths? And then Richard, who was refused help by the Electoral Official. Where's your carer? When he said he wished to vote in secret, like everyone else, he was told to go from Devonport to Burnie, where he would find a voting machine. I wonder, how was Richard to afford a $250 taxi fare on a pension?

09:53

The experience me and my wife Carol had was the icing on the cake. I have very little vision. Carol uses a wheelchair that she cannot push herself. Her eyes, my muscles. Our local polling booth was closed. We can't just jump in our car and drive to another booth, and getting a wheelchair accessible taxi at short notice is challenging. And with all other polling booths identified as wheelchair accessible with assistance, who knows what that might mean? If only we could have voted by phone. A privilege extended under Tasmanian legislation, only to voters in remote areas or living outside Tasmania. Ironic considering that phone voting is successfully offered to people with disability in all other states.

So in the end, no vote for us. And who knows how many other Tasmanians with disability who could not work around this broken system and its many impositions and inconveniences. Why should Tasmanian voters with disability struggle with this third rate system only to have it reinforce our second class citizenship? The Tasmanian Electoral Commission website says, we must pay a fine unless we have a valid and sufficient reason for not voting. Many of us have that in spades, but we want to vote. And the commission's failure to enable this or recommend legislative reform, if needed, should not be a valid reason for us to be disenfranchised.

The commissioner can damp down the fuss about the compulsory votes for people with disabilities being too hard to cast by pretending they're not so compulsory after all. No fine, no fuss. But a fuss is exactly what we need. In what world is this broken by design voting system not unlawful discrimination as defined in Tasmania's World Class Anti -Discrimination Act? But we shouldn't need to make a legal complaint. The commission knows what the problems are.

12:07

It's time for the commission to make sure that every Tasmanian can bite into the democracy sausage, not hand us a raw prawn. David Morrell is a person with disability, a carer, and upholds the interests of both groups. He serves on the boards of Disability Voices Tasmania and Carers Tasmania Slash Care to Serve. He holds several roles on government advisory groups. He has spent his social work career advocating for the rights of disabled people in South Australia and Tasmania, as well as federally. He lives in Northern Tasmania. And we're going to be hearing about this in future episodes of New Horizons because as the opening sentence of the opinion piece says, the right to vote independently, secretly, and verifiably is a basic cornerstone of Australian democracy and so very important right across the country.

So if you're living in Tasmania and were adversely affected by the inaccessible voting practices in the recent lower house election, get in touch with me, new.horizons at bca.org.au ... new.horizons at bca.org.au. Blind Citizens Australia is interested in hearing your story. And in a couple of weeks is a further election in Tasmania for the upper house, the Legislative Council, in three electorates. If you're affected by voting practices that are inaccessible to you in that upcoming election on May the 4th, again, we want to hear about your experiences.

New - dot - horizons at BCA - dot - org - dot au. If you'd like to get in touch with Blind Citizens Australia, the phone number is 1-800-033-660 ... -1800-033-660 or you can email bca.org.au... BCA-dot-org-dot-AU. I'll talk to you again next week.

13:56

We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams, of our dreams.