CHC AGAINST DEIVR EMBARGOED UNTIL DLVR
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL OFFICE
1983/ 84 EDUCATION AND ENROLMENT CAMPAIGN
MELBOURNE 14 OCTOBER 1983
Few Australians will have forgotten how
the precipitate closure of the electoral rolls before
the las~ k. election effectively disenfranchised nearly 200,000
of our fellow Australians.
In one fell swoop he deprived many of those who had
suffered most from the policies of his Government of their
right to vote. Th~ e closure of the electoral rolls within an hour
of the last Parliament being dissolved was a cynical act,
totally at odds with the democratic traditions of this
country. It did, however, serve one useful purpose.
It drew attention to the large number of eligible
Australian's who had failed to register to vote.
That number continues to be unacceptably high.
A recent AuIstralian Electoral Office survey
indicated that between 500,000 and 600,000 eligible
Australian residents have failed to register to vote.
We cannot afford to shrug this situation aside.
Full and effective participation by all
Australian's in our political system is necessary to the
health of that system and, ultimately, to the achievement of
strong, effective and truly representative Government.
We should all be concerned that so many fail to
enrol, * to vote, and to exercise their right to participate
in our system of parliamicntary democarcy.
Already we have moved to simplify the procedures
involved. The new plain English enrolment forms are a
distinct improvement on those previously used.
But it is esp,-cially diStUrbing that behind this
failure to exercise basic democratic rights and
responsibilities a failure heavily concentrated among our
young people lies an appalling iljnorarce,. apathy an:-
cynicism.
Quite apart from widespread ignorance of enrolment
procedures, an Australian Electoral Office survey recently
found an almost universal lack of confidence among young,
unenrolled Australians that their vote has any significant
impact on government, the Parliament, the bureaucracy and
their own lives.
As a Government we aim to reverse this situation
to provide information, motivation and reason, where now
there is ignorance, apathy and cynicism.
Every Australain has a role t~ o play in the
Government-of this country.
Every Australian must be able to feel represcnted
in Parliament and must be able to feel that he or she has
confidence in the democratic and parliamentary process-.
We politicians have a particular responsibility in
this reqard. We must, as Kim Beazley put it in the House
recently, earn credibility through performance; through our
policies ar~ d actions we have to show
that a vote is a worthwhile and
meaning ful exercise.
I am especially pleased that Alan Griffiths, the
Member, for Maribyrnong is with us today. As the youngest
Member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on electoral
reform and as one of the youngest Members of the House of
Representatives, he has a particular appreciation of the
issues involved it) this campaign.
I expect him both on the Government's and my own
behalf and within the constraints of his own already heavy
schedule of commitments to be active in carrying this
exercise forward.
The campaign we are launching today is cruIcial.
It also, despite the background of the pre-election
situation, has the support of both sides of politics.
Mr Steel Hall's recent suggestion that the campaigni
be bipartisan a suggestion made in resonse to IMr Bcoazley's
invitation to Members from both sides of the House to jioin
together in explaining the aims and purposes of the campaign
is welcome. We look forward to the Opposition getting behind
this effort. Surprisingly our campaign is unprecedented.
Costing $ 3.35 million, it is a sophisticated,
carefully integrated education and information exercise
directed not just at the unenrolled but to all Australians.
Without exception we owe it to ourselves and to our
society that we all know and exercise our electoral rights
and responsibilities. In this sense this campaign is one which not only
should succeed it must succeed.