Australian Electoral Commission asks 18,343 voters to please explain.....

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 2016:

More than 18,000 people have been asked to explain why they apparently voted more than once at the federal election.

Despite heavy fines and the risk of jail time for multiple voting, two people were marked off the electoral roll 11 times on July 2. 

A further two people had their names marked off five times, while four others had four marks and 51 people had three marks.

Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday night 18,343 people have been asked to explain why their name was checked off more than once, with many expected to be in error.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act allows for fines of $10,800 or up to a year in jail for people convicted of multiple votes. Anyone found to have impersonated someone else at the ballot box faces up to six months in jail or a fine of $1800.

Before this year's election the AEC wrote to more than 4600 people with a prior history of apparent multiple voting to remind them of the law.

Mr Rogers said individuals who had two or more marks next to their name at the past two elections were sent warning letters.

"We wrote to a select group of people we thought may be at risk of not understanding their obligations under the Electoral Act," he said.

"We've never done that before.

"That was an attempt to demonstrate the seriousness with which we treat this particular issue." 

AEC officials will assess how many recipients of the letters are among those recorded as having their name marked off more than once. 

Liberal Party dirty linen spills out of the cupboard yet again

A timely reminder of what goes in the shadows during Liberal Party election campaigns......

 The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2016:

The Liberal Party has suspended a campaign director in the 2015 NSW election, after he was charged with electoral crimes in a marginal seat where the Australian Labor Party candidate was anonymously smeared as a paedophile.

The NSW Electoral Commission has taken action under the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act against Jim Daniel, who ran the campaign for the seat of East Hills, which MP Glenn Brookes unexpectedly retained by just 628 votes, or 0.8 per cent, in 2015.

During the campaign about 300 posters of ALP candidate Cameron Murphy, a human rights lawyer who has an Order of Australia and is the son of High Court judge Lionel Murphy, were defaced with stickers saying "paedophile lover," "stranger danger" and "our children are not safe".

In 2015 ALP MP Lynda Voltz, under parliamentary privilege, accused Mr Daniel, who is on Bankstown City Council, of organising the defacement of the posters.

At that time Mr Daniel said the accusations were "just another attempt to reheat issues previously raised and dealt with".

The Electoral Commission issued a statement on Friday that it had investigated a number of complaints and served two notices on Mr Daniel to appear at Downing Street Court.  

"It will be alleged by the NSWEC that political campaign material distributed in the electorate of East Hills was in contravention of the act."

The NSW division of the Liberal Party said on Sunday that Mr Daniel was suspended and the NSWEC was the right body to investigate any complaints. 

PerthNow, 21 March 2016:

EAST Hills Liberal MP Glenn Brookes will stand aside from the Liberal Party and will serve on the crossbench until the outcome of a charge against his campaign manager over an alleged breach of the electoral act involving a paedophile slur is determined.

Mr Brookes will also step aside from his parliamentary committee roles, including serving on Premier Mike Baird’s parliamentary ethics committee until the matter is resolved.

The scandal now threatens to produce a possible by-election.

Labor candidate Cameron Murphy, who was the head of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, lost the seat of East Hills by less than 400 votes — or 0.2 per cent — after the dirty campaign.

In the week before polling day, 300 of Mr Murphy’s posters were defaced with stickers falsely declaring him “a paedophile lover”.

Thousands of anonymous pamphlets were also letterboxed wrongly claiming Mr Murphy, the son of former High Court Judge and Federal Attorney-General Lionel Murphy, had stood up for paedophiles.

The matter is listed for mention at the Downing Centre Local Court on May 3….

BACKGROUND

The Express, 31 July 2012:

THE Liberal Party has endorsed two south ward candidates for Bankstown Council's election in September. Picnic Point resident Jim Daniel and Revesby's Vanessa Gauci will run on the south ward ticket.

Father-of-two Mr Daniel was preselected to run as number one on the ticket.

"I am honoured by the trust that has been shown in me by so many people who sincerely know that I have what it takes to be a successful south ward councillor on Bankstown Council," Mr Daniel said…..

The Express, 2 October 2012:

East Hills state Liberal MP Glenn Brookes has stepped down from his role on Bankstown Council after eight years.

Mr Brookes stood down from the council at last month's local government elections under new state government laws prohibiting anybody from holding a council and an MP position at the same time. "During my eight years on council more than $288 million has been spent on capital works and I am pleased to say that $26 million has been spent in my South ward," he said. Mr Brookes' heir in South ward is newly minted Liberal councillor Jim Daniel.

The Express, 19 May 2015:

The Bankstown Liberal councillor accused in Parliament of being involved in an election smear campaign has called the accusations "cowardly".

Jim Daniel denies being involved in a smear campaign that wrongly implied East Hills Labor candidate Cameron Murphy was a "paedophile lover".

Mr Daniel, who was the campaign manager for East Hills state Liberal MP Glenn Brookes during the State Election, was named by Labor MP Lynda Voltz in Parliament on Thursday.

Using parliamentary privilege, Ms Voltz said a resident saw Mr Daniel delivering the unauthorised leaflets during the campaign. In one leaflet it states "if a convicted child rapist lived next to you would you want to know?" alongside a photo of Mr Murphy.

East Hills was the tightest seat going into the election.

Despite Mr Murphy being favourite to win the seat back for Labor, Mr Brookes won by 372 votes with a slight swing in his favour.

In Parliament last Thursday, Ms Voltz said copies of the pamphlets were delivered to Padstow, Georges Hall, Revesby and Panania…..

The Express, 15 December 2015:

Mr Daniel, a Bankstown councillor, has denied any involvement. "I've had enough of them trying to belittle me. It's a hard enough job in politics without people crying over spilt milk," Mr Brookes said.

"They can't get over that I won. I told the people from (Liberal Party) hierarchy 'don't write me off'." East Hills had always been a Labor seat until Mr Brookes won in 2011 and he was re-elected in March despite only holding the seat by 0.2 per cent.

"They think they have a God-given right to the (East Hills) area - nobody does," he said.

Mr Brookes challenged Labor to accuse him of involvement in the smear campaign outside parliament. "Have a cheque book ready and have a go," he said.

Canterbury Bankstown Express, 6 May 2014:

Bankstown councillor Jim Daniel says he is "disappointed" he has been forced to defend himself over a business networking event he helped organise in 2012 that has been referred to ICAC due to a connection to former energy minister Chris Hartcher.

Cr Daniel helped his friend, accountant George Germanos, organise the networking meeting for Mr Germanos's Georges River Club at Bankstown Paceway in July 2012.

Mr Hartcher, who is being investigated by ICAC over allegations of a slush fund, was the guest speaker.

Cr Daniel said he asked East Hills state Liberal MP Glenn Brookes, for whom he works as an electorate officer, to invite fellow government members to attend.

"(Mr Brookes) invited a number of prominent people to attend, and it's just our luck that the one MP who did is now being investigated by ICAC," he said.

Cr Daniel said he and Mr Germanos had written to ICAC and the Electoral Funding Commission before the original event in 2012 to make sure there were no irregularities.

Cr Daniel said it was a shame Mr Brookes was now forced to defend himself for "helping out a staffer". He said there had not been enough money raised from the event to continue holding them.

Electoral redistribution in federal seats and what it might mean on NSW Far North Coast in 2016

Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Proposed redistribution of New South Wales into electoral divisions, October 2015:

A total of 944,592 electors or 19.42 per cent of electors in NSW would change from their current federal electoral division under the proposed redistribution. Once a redistribution is final, the AEC automatically transfers existing elector enrolments, where required, to the correct electoral division.

The augmented Electoral Commission has adopted boundary changes* in the Cowper,Page, and Richmond electorates proposed by the Redistribution Committee for New South Wales.

Electoral boundary changes on NSW Far North Coast according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC):

* Projected enrolment in the existing Division of Cowper is 100 289. This electoral division must gain at least 6 384 electors, or up to 14 122 electors, from other electoral divisions to fall within the acceptable numerical tolerances.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Cowper gain 37 024 electors from the Division of Lyne in the southern part of Kempsey LGA and that part of Port Macquarie-Hastings LGA including Telegraph Point and Port Macquarie.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Cowper transfer 23 114 electors to the proposed Division of Page in the northern part of Coffs Harbour LGA from Lowanna, Coramba and Sapphire Beach, and its part of Clarence Valley LGA.

The changes result in a projected enrolment for the proposed Division of Cowper of 114 199 or a variation from the projected enrolment quota of plus 3.31 per cent…..

As a result, there are less than optimal outcomes in terms of communities of interest. The proposed Division of Cowper contains the major centres of Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie and therefore splits the two respective LGAs. The locality of Wauchope is also split from Port Macquarie. The proposed electoral division does however unite Kempsey LGA. The alternative involves crossing the Great Dividing Range.

* Projected enrolment in the existing Division of Page is 98 008. This electoral division must gain at least 8 665 electors, or up to 16 403 electors, from other electoral divisions to fall within the acceptable numerical tolerances.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Page gain 23 114 electors from the Division of Cowper in the northern part of Coffs Harbour LGA south to Lowanna, Coramba and Sapphire Beach, and that part of Clarence Valley LGA south of Maclean, east of Grafton and north of Glenreagh, two electors from the Division of New England near Dorrigo, and 6 863 electors from the Division of Richmond in the Lismore LGA.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Page transfer 13 693 electors to the proposed Division of Richmond in that part of Ballina LGA east of Alstonville and south to Empire Vale. The Committee further proposes minor changes in the boundary with the proposed Division of New England, involving no elector movement.

The changes result in a projected enrolment for the proposed Division of Page of 114 294 or a variation from the projected enrolment quota of plus 3.39 per cent…..

The Committee notes that Lismore, Ballina and Clarence Valley LGAs are already split. Mindful of their principle regarding LGAs in rural areas, the Committee sought to minimise the incidence of split rural LGAs. Having provided electors from the Ballina LGA to the proposed Division of Richmond, the Committee was able to unite the Lismore and Clarence Valley LGAs in the proposed Division of Page.

* Projected enrolment in the existing Division of Richmond is 100 573. This electoral division must gain at least 6 100 electors, or up to 13 838 electors, from other electoral divisions to fall within the acceptable numerical tolerances.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Richmond gain 13 693 electors from the Division of Page in that part of Ballina LGA east of Alstonville and south to Empire Vale east of the Pacific Highway.

The Committee proposes that the Division of Richmond transfer 6 863 electors to the proposed Division of Page in the Lismore LGA. 419. The changes result in a projected enrolment for the proposed Division of Richmond of 107 403 or a variation from the projected enrolment quota of minus 2.84 per cent.

The Division of Richmond had to gain electors, and its position in the north-eastern corner of the state meant that the required numbers could only be obtained from the Division of Page. The Committee notes that both the Lismore and Ballina LGAs are already split. Mindful of their principle regarding LGAs in rural area, the Committee sought to minimise the incidence of split rural LGAs. The numerical requirements of the Electoral Act determined that the balance of Ballina LGA could not be transferred into the proposed Division of Richmond. The Committee therefore proposes to move the boundary further south in the Ballina LGA to include the town of Ballina. This allowed the Committee to unite the Lismore LGA in the Division of Page.

Two renaming proposals on the NSW Far North Coast were rejected by the augmented Electoral Commission:

* Division of Cowper proposed to be renamed Paterson after Andrew ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864– 1941), Australian author and poet

* Division of Richmond proposed to be renamed Bandler – after Faith Bandler, AC (1918–2015), in recognition of her role as a leader of the 1967 referendum campaign in favour of two constitutional amendments relating to Indigenous Australians. 

Both these proposed changes submitted by electors were apparently rejected because it is policy to retain where possible the names given to electorates at Federation.

Changes in electoral boundaries are expected to be gazetted in February.

Subsequent changes to margins electorates are held by:

Cowper is held by Nationals with a margin of 11.7 – now predicted to be 13.8

Page is held by Nationals with a margin of 2.5 – now predicted to be 3.1

Richmond is held by Labor with a margin of 3.0 – now predicted to be 1.8.

The Daily Examiner, 15 December 2016:

KEVIN Hogan will be the federal MP for all residents of the Clarence Valley from next month after the approval of proposed electoral boundary changes.

Mr Hogan's electorate of Page will now stretch from the Queensland border to Sapphire Beach in the south.

Towns and villages such as Maclean, Gulmarrad, Cowper, Glenreagh, Red Rock and Woolgoolga, that had previously been part of the Cowper electorate, will shift to Page once the change becomes official on February 25. Cowper will now cover the area from Coffs Harbour to Port Macquarie.

The  Australian reporting on some of the implications for the rest of the country, 12 January 2016:

A radical electoral redistribution threatens to neutralise the effect of Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity in NSW, putting at risk at least three Coalition seats and slicing the margin of another.

As Bill Shorten today embarks on a three-week mini-campaign to kickstart the election year, the ­Liberal Party has lashed the Australian Electoral Commission for pushing ahead with its proposed boundaries, ignoring “extensive community concerns” while greatly altering the character of ­affected seats.

The AEC, which is due to finalise the redistribution next month, has received almost 800 objections to the proposed boundary shake-up, which will see almost 20 per cent of electors in NSW transferred to a new federal seat and abolishes the Labor seat of Charlton, south of Newcastle. A new safe Liberal seat of Burt is to be ­created in Western Australia.

In an objection lodged with the AEC, Tony Nutt, the Liberal Party’s former NSW director and now federal director, criticises the commission for “unnecessary elector disruption” arising from the boundary changes that will see some regional local government areas split for the first time.

The proposed changes to reduce the number of NSW electorates from 48 to 47 will see three Liberal Party seats — Barton, Paterson and Dobell — become notionally Labor while the safe seat of Macarthur becomes marginal.

Senior Liberal sources say hopes of a boost to the party’s ­fortunes from the new Prime Minister’s popularity have been dashed, but strategists are confident his rise in the polls will help to contain losses. The party is also ­expected to pick up Burt…..

In its objection to the AEC, the Liberal Party says the commission’s “extraordinary” decision to include inner-city suburbs into the otherwise overwhelmingly suburban Barton, “fails miserably on community of interest grounds”.

“Yet again the committee has failed to recognise the very clear differences and areas of interest that inner-city electors have to electors that reside in more suburban areas,” the objection says. “Divisions that seek to facilitate the representation of both these often opposing communities are destined to fail the community.”

Nickolas Varvaris, who holds the seat of Barton on a wafer-thin 0.3 per cent margin, is almost certain to lose on the proposed new boundaries as the seat becomes a Labor electorate with an estimated margin of 8.3 per cent. Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese is expected to shift from his seat of Grayndler — now seen as vulnerable to the Greens — into Barton to contest the next election.

Scott Morrison has also lodged his “strongest objection” about the effect of the redistribution on his seat of Cook, which he says will split the community of the Sutherland Shire for the first time in 100 years in a move that will affect more than 60,000 electors but has negligible impact on his very safe margin. “The proposed boundaries needlessly disrupt one of our country’s strongest communities of interest,” the Treasurer says.

Around Newcastle, where the seats of Dobell and Paterson are now notionally Labor, the Liberal Party is urging the committee revisit the draft boundaries in their entirety. The seat of Dobell, held by Karen McNamara, switches from a Liberal marginal seat of 0.7 per cent to a notional Labor seat with a margin of 0.3 per cent, while Bob Baldwin’s seat of Paterson is more radically altered, changing from a Liberal seat with a margin of 9.8 per cent to a marginal Labor seat of 1.3 per cent.

Macarthur, held by Russell Matheson, has its margin slashed from 11.4 per cent to 2.8 per cent.

The party has also slammed the decision of the AEC to move the locality of Camden and its surrounds out of Macarthur and in to the regional seat of Hume, held by one of the government’s rising stars, Angus Taylor. While the seat becomes safer for the Liberal Party under the new boundary, Mr Taylor is concerned the character of the rural Liberal seat will be “substantially different”. 

Yass Tribune, 15 January 2016:

PROPOSED federal electoral boundary changes issued on Friday will see Hume lose large parts of its rural west.

MP Angus Taylor says he’s extremely disappointed to lose the towns of Yass, Young, Cootamundra, Harden, Grenfell and Cowra…. 

Mr Taylor said while pundits predicted change in the the State’s north, nobody had anticipated the scale of the AEC’s proposed boundary shifts in southern NSW, not even the Liberal Party.

The Guardian, 15 January 2016:

Figures published by the ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, suggest the number of notionally Coalition seats in NSW will decline from 30 to 27 after the boundaries take effect, a development that is causing nervousness in Liberal ranks. The number of notionally Labor seats will increase from 18 to 20.

* AEC Media Release Augmented Electoral Commission decides names and boundaries of federal electoral divisions in New South Wales, 14 January 2016.

So who are these Americans thought willing to put "tens of millions" of dollars into Tony Abbott's re-election coffers?

It causes enough unease to know that a Conservative Party peer of the realm sitting in the U.K. House of Lords financed past Liberal Party of Australia federal election campaigns to the tune of $1.5 million, now it seems Americans are expected to donate to Tony Abbott’s 2016 re-election coffers.

The Sydney Morning Herald 24 February 2015:

Mr Higginson wrote that he had raised $70 million since 2011 and recently "laid out my plans to the PM" to travel to the United States to raise "tens of millions" from donors.

Is the Prime Minister so unpopular with home-grown donors that he now has to look elsewhere for the big money?

Or is this trawl for foreign political donations part of the Abbott Government's "open for business" approach to governing?

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott: 'out of touch', 'arrogant', 'narrow-minded' and 'erratic'

Five days before the September 2013 federal election which saw him become Australia’s 28^th prime minister, Anthony John ‘Tony’ Abbott’s chief personal attributes (according to Essential Research polling at the time) were ‘hard working’ and ‘intelligent’.

Seventeen months later, he is primarily seen as 'out of touch with ordinary people', 'arrogant', 'narrow-minded' and 'erratic'.

For over half those polled he remains ‘hardworking’, but is also viewed as ‘superficial’ and ‘intolerant’.

The percentage of poll respondents who consider Tony Abbott as ‘intelligent’ has dropped from 63 per cent prior to his becoming prime minister down to 50 per cent at the beginning of this week.

Tony Abbott, when compared with Bill Shorten, is considered by more respondents to be ‘erratic’, ‘out of touch with ordinary people’, ‘arrogant’, ‘narrow minded’, ‘intolerant’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘superficial’.

Bill Shorten, when compared with Tony Abbott, is regarded by more respondents to be someone who is ‘intelligent’, ‘hardworking, ‘understands the problems facing Australia’, and ‘a capable leader’.

'Someone else' still has more support than Tony Abbott as being the best leader of the Liberal Party - as does Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop at 24 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

This poll indicates that if an election had been held on Tuesday 2 February 2015 Labor would have taken back federal government by roughly the same percentage as the Coalition won it in 2013.

Essential Report* of 3 January 2015:

* This report summarises the results of a weekly omnibus conducted by Essential Research with data provided by Your Source. The survey was conducted online from the 30th January 2015 to 2nd February and is based on 1,019 respondents.    

Some things you may not have known about 'electronic' voting options in NSW state elections

According to the NSW Electoral Commission iVote is technology assisted voting and has been used in a New South Wales general election and five by-elections since 2011 for certain classes of electors - those with impaired vision or a physical disability requiring assistance, the profoundly illiterate, persons living more than 20 kms from the nearest polling station and those out of the state on polling day.

Voting is done on the Internet using a standard web browser or by call centre operators taking phone votes. Originally the second voting method was by phone using a standard handset and DTMF tones, but this was changed after the 2011 general election.

The largest group of iVote users were electors voting outside NSW on election day (over 43,000).

Of those electors who registered to iVote, 4,239 or 8.30% did not eventually use this system to cast their vote and 1,438 or 2.90% did not vote at all.

Over one thousand electors (1,335) registered to iVote during the 19 November 2011 by-election for the state seat of Clarence on the NSW North Coast and, most of these were first time uses of this voting system.

It has been proposed that the iVote system be used again for the March 2015 general election and during the September 2016 local government elections.

However, there are some issues with the iVote system that are not generally advertised by the NSW Government.

Below are excerpts from the Federal Government Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matter’s Second interim report on the inquiry into the conduct of the 2013 federal election: An assessment of electronic voting options, with my red bolding:

For example, the lost vote rate in the 2013 West Australian Senate race (1370 out of 1,348,797, slightly over 0.1%) was about the same as the demonstrated vote misrecording rate in Australia’s largest Internet voting trial, the NSW iVote project (43 misrecorded electronic votes out of 46,864, slightly under 0.1%) (PWC, 2011). The WA Senate incident received much more attention because it impacted an election outcome, not because the system was inherently much less reliable. Even more importantly, the paper-based Senate process retained paper evidence of the 99.9% of votes that weren’t lost; the iVote system produced no meaningful evidence of the correctness of any of the votes.

the ‘weak point’ in a paper-based voting system, resulting in a lost box of ballot papers, may lead to an unverifiable close result (such as in WA): but one ‘weak point’ in a wide-ranging electronic voting system has the potential to expose an entire election’s vote data to manipulation, corruption or attack, undermining the parliamentary system supported by the electoral process.

The NSW iVote system (outlined in Chapter 3) used in the 2011 state election had an average cost per vote cast of $74 compared to an average cost of all votes cast of $8.

While the iVote system is relatively secure, due to the fact that it utilises telephone systems for blind or low vision voting transactions and encrypted internet data architecture, the vote data on the voter’s computer or in the NSWEC’s servers is still open to potential manipulation.

In response to criticisms of the system’s security, the NSWEC has commissioned a third-party provider to strengthen the security of the system software prior to the 2015 state election, along with other hardware and data transmission improvements.

Vision Australia made a submission to the Joint Committee concerning telephone assisted voting during the 2013 federal election which included these observations:

It was anonymous, but not truly secret. People felt uncomfortable about verbalising their voting intentions to another person, and expressed the view that no-one else in the community would regard it as acceptable to be required to do this. Some clients in residential facilities and other places with limited privacy also expressed concern that their conversation with the call centre staff would be overheard and their voting intentions revealed…..

Clients who had voted using the iVote system in the NSW 2011 election were especially aware of the lack of independence involved in using the call centre option.

Some clients noted that they had no way of verifying that their voting intentions had been notated accurately and lodged correctly. While they did not necessarily mistrust the call centre operator, they were nevertheless aware that any human-mediated process introduces the possibility of errors, and such errors are more likely to occur when the process becomes complex, such as when a voter is voting “below the line”.

A vulnerable Richie Williamson seeks to shore up support for his mayoral position and future political ambitions?

Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson decided to spring a last minute surprise on his fellow councillors, residents and ratepayers with a mayoral minute not included in the ordinary monthly meeting business paper for 18 November 2014.

However, on the same day he informed councillors of his intention The Daily Examiner also appears to have become aware and published this on its front page the next day:

                                                                

CLARENCE Valley Council Mayor Richie Williamson wants to give ratepayers the chance to say if they want a popularly elected mayor.

Cr Williamson will table a Mayoral Minute at tonight's council meeting calling for the council to take the question to a referendum early next year.

The referendum could be held in conjunction with a by-election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Councillor Jeremy Challacombe in a car accident late last month.

The council will ask the NSW Electoral Commission to set the date for the by-election as February 21.

Cr Williamson's Mayoral Minute recommends taking the following question to the voters:

"The Mayor of Clarence Valley Council is currently elected each year by the Councillors.

"Do you favour the election of the Mayor by the electors for a four-year term and without changing the number of councillors from nine, including the Mayor?"

According to Cr Williamson, the option of having a popularly elected mayor is regularly raised with him by ratepayers.

"I haven't gone into the points for and against in the Mayoral Minute because this really is a decision of the people," he said.

"Now is an opportunity for the question to be asked.

"The council should never be afraid of asking residents and ratepayers their views on important issues."

Cr Williamson would not be drawn on his preference.

The Mayoral Minute estimates the cost of the referendum in conjunction with the by-election at $16,000.

The estimated cost of the by-election itself is $160,000.

Mayor Williamson tells us that he is merely responding to the wishes of ratepayers.

One would think if that were really the case these wishes would be reflected in numerous letters to the editor since September 2004. A search of local newspaper records show few mentions of a desire to directly elect a mayor for a four-year term.

Indeed the only prominent proponents of changing how a Clarence Valley mayor is currently elected have been the present NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis and former Nationals pre-selection candidate Mayor Richie Williamson himself.

Then Cr. Chris Gulaptis was quoted in the media as he faced losing his bid to become Clarence Valley mayor in 2006:

Councillor Chris Gulaptis said he thought he would lose the challenge because councillors, not ratepayers, vote for the mayor.

He says he would have a better chance if the election were done by popular vote.

"I haven't been lobbying," he said.

"I think there has been some lobbying done and I think it's successful, more successful from the other candidate, and I think that I will probably come second again.

"However, I'm putting my hand up and saying I'm not happy with the way things are going.

While Richie Williamson has been unsuccessfully attempting to convince his fellow councillors to change mayoral election rules since at least 2011:

ORDINARY MEETING of 15 NOVEMBER 2011….

Item: 13.236/11

MOTION

(Crs Williamson/Comben)

That

In accordance with S16 (b) of the Local Government Act 1993, Council conduct a

constitutional referendum at the 2012 NSW quadrennial local government election so as to allow the electors of Clarence Valley to determine the basis on which the Mayor attains office that is, by election by the Councillors or by election by the electors.

Voting recorded as follows:

For: Councillors Williamson, Comben, Howe and Hughes

Against: Councillors Tiley, Toms, Simmons, McKenna and Dinham

The motion was LOST…..

If Council resolves to hold a constitutional referendum the General Manager must advise the Electoral Commissioner with 21 days.

The required explanatory material, which must be prepared and publicised at the cost of Council, must be based on a balanced case for and against the proposition.

The Local Government Act provides that the decision made at a constitutional referendum binds the council until changed by a subsequent constitutional referendum. If a referendum resulted in a change to direct election of the mayor, that change would not take effect until the 2016 Council election.

Lower Clarence opinion seems to be mainly split between those who believe that Williamson is pushing for mayoral election by popular vote because winning the office in that manner would convince potential backers to support him when he next takes aim at a state or federal seat and, those who believe that having come close to losing the mayoral election last September he needs the guarantee of a four-year term by 2016 if he is to hold off future contenders.

The timing of this mayoral minute hasn’t escaped the eagle eyes of valley residents either – the fact that there are only eight councillors at present means that it is more likely that Mayor Williamson will be able to use his casting vote in favour of his own self-interest should there be a voting tie when the motion comes before council this afternoon.

UPDATE

A valley resident asked me if I knew when Clarence Valley councillors became aware of Mayor Williamson's intention to put forward the motion seeking a referendum.

I cannot say exactly. However I believe it may have been shortly after the document was created on 17 November 2014 at 1:12:49pm (see snapshot below) and sent to councillors later that afternoon.

As for when the document became available online at council's website - all I can say is that I was not aware of it being published on the Internet until just before 9pm on 17 November 2014.

UPDATE

On the afternoon of 18 November 2014 Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson took advantage of the fact that there were only eight councillors at the ordinary monthly meeting (due to the recent death of the ninth councillor) and, forced through ITEM 10.010/14 PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM - CHANGING THE BASIS ON WHICH THE MAYOR ATTAINS OFFICE TO ELECTION BY THE ELECTORS by using his casting vote to endorse his personal preference for a referendum vote on establishing a popularly elected mayor serving a four-year term.

Morgan Poll of Australian federal voting intentions released on 24 March 2014 shows ALP leading

Scroll down in media release for polling breakdown, tables and graphs.

Roy Morgan Research, Morgan Poll, Media Release 24 March 2014

About those multiple votes....

Mainstream media has been making much of the fact that at the 2013 federal general election 1,979 Australians have admitted to voting more than once. The Guardian went so far as to run with the highly misleading headline: AEC uncovers 19,000 cases of multiple voting in last federal election.

However in relation to the 18,770 ‘recorded’ multiple votes, ongoing processing has so far found that 8,291 of these multiple votes are due to clerical error on the part of electoral commission employees.

Still be processed are another 8,500 electors.

Of the admitted 1,979 multiple voters - 1,602.99 of these are either elderly, have poor literacy skills or do not fully understand the electoral process.

That leaves approximately 377 people of whom 128 may not have a reliable explanation for multiple voting.

Statistically I doubt whether these 128 people would have influenced the election outcome. 

Unless miraculously they were all registered as residing in for example the Fairfax or Indie electorates and cast their votes exclusively in favour of the Liberal and National parties - thus giving the Abbott Government an even bigger majority.

The likes of the  H S Chapman Society might get into a lather about 463 ballots papers out of a total of 13,726,070 ballots cast, but I cannot see such a small number being a good reason to switch the current voting system to either the highly problematic electronic voting or the very hackable online voting systems.

Senate Estimates, Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, 25 February 2014:

Excerpt from evidence given by Tom Rogers, Acting Electoral Commissioner –

As you know, after the election not every multiple mark on a certified list is actually a multiple vote. So we go through a process of filtering those out...

We sent inquiry letters to 18,770 electors who had multiple marks recorded beside their names.

Replies are still being processed after that process. To date, 8,291 multiple marks have been confirmed as being

caused by official error, such as the wrong name being marked off when electors with similar names attend the

booth or even, on paper lists, people pressing too hard so that the pen goes through the sheet.

A total of 1,979 electors have admitted to voting more than once, with the greater majority of those—over 81 per cent—being elderly, with poor literacy, or with low comprehension of the electoral process....

I think you will find that for some of the elderly voters it  will be that they might have received a vote from one of our mobile teams and also a postal vote, for example...

 There are 128 electors who have more than two marks recorded beside their names...

That is 92 [with three marks recorded beside their names]...

22 [with four marks recorded beside their names]...

Four [with five marks recorded beside their names]...

With six marks, there are six electors; seven marks, one elector; nine marks, one elector; 12 marks, one elector; and 15 marks, one elector...

What I can tell you is that we are currently working with the AFP and the DPP about this issue. We take it very seriously....

Australian Electoral Commission 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and others

The Australian Electoral Commission’s has released the 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and peak industry bodies/unions/political lobbyists.

Some interesting snippets.....

Universities Australia spent $4.75 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment.

GetUp! spent $3.03 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment

Phillip Morris Ltd spent $30,382 on public expression of views on a political party, candidate in an election or member of the Federal Parliament by any means and a further $19,359 on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment. This company also donated $82,040 to the Liberal Party and $25,000 to the National Party.

Roslyn Packer (widow of Clive Packer) donated $580,400 to the Liberal Party, with the bulk of this money going to the Liberal Party national body and only $400 going to the NSW division. However, the national body only appears to have recorded a donation of $570,000. This would leave a discrepancy of $10,000 between these annual returns.

Lachlan Murdoch donated $22,000 to the Liberal Party.

Gina Rinehart through Hancock Coal Pty Ltd donated $44,880 to the National Party and $55,000 to the Labor Party. While Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd donated $55,000 to the National Party and $8,250 to the Liberal National Party of Queensland. The national body also listed under "Other" an additional $22,000 received from Hancock Coal Pty Ltd (GVK).

International Motors Pty Ltd of Coleshill U.K. donated $76,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia and Impellam Group PLC of Luton U.K. has a little over $12,000 listed under "Other" by the party.

The Sydney Small Business Club (The Warringah Club) - Tony Abbott’s support group – declared $14,000 in gross cash/non-cash benefits received.

.

Associated entities submitting annual returns totalled 185.

Donors declaring numbered 787.

According to The Age on 3 January 2014; the Liberal Party's total revenue was $73.1 million last financial year, compared with $54.7 million for Labor. The Nationals further bolstered the Coalition's haul with $8.3 million. The Greens recorded $8.1 million in revenue.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 5 February 2014 reported; New Liberal MP Angus Taylor has been described as an asset to his party. News reports after his pre-selection for a country NSW seat in 2012 described the then candidate as ''smart'' and ''charming''. Financial disclosure documents reveal Mr Taylor is also an uncommonly valuable – perhaps uniquely valuable – financial asset to his party. The Liberal Party's annual dump of political revenue and donations, records a man named Angus Taylor, at an address in Sydney's Woollahra, who gave the Liberals $155,000 in five separate tranches in 2012-13. A call to Mr Taylor's office revealed the generous giver was the same man. The Woollahra address was an investment property, Mr Taylor said, adding that he had lived in his electorate, near Goulburn, and had been there for a long time. Mr Taylor, who won the safe Coalition seat of Hume at the September election by a margin of 11.5 per cent, concedes much of what he contributed to the party went towards his campaign including a car and petrol to get around the electorate, which is one of the largest in the country....

Australian Electoral Commission issues a gentle reminder to come clean

All political parties need to list every donation, dot every i and cross every t - because ordinary voters are watching and they are not happy.....

Political party and associated entity disclosure returns due 20 October 2013

Updated: 17 October 2013

The AEC today reminded all registered political parties and associated entities that annual disclosure returns for the 2012-13 financial year must be lodged by 20 October 2013.

More than 50 political parties and 100 associated entities have yet to lodge their disclosure returns.

Annual disclosure returns must be lodged within 16 weeks after the end of the financial year.

Registered political parties and associated entities are required to disclose total receipts, total payments, total debts and details of receipts and debts greater than the disclosure threshold for the financial year.

Section 315 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 provides for penalties for failure to lodge returns within the required timeframe.

Political parties and their associated entities can prepare and lodge their returns online via the eReturns portal.

Lodging returns online is quick, secure, environmentally friendly, and allows for the importing/exporting of files, which eliminates transcription errors.

Annual disclosure returns are made available for public inspection on the AEC’s website on the first working day in February every year. 2012-13 financial year disclosure returns will be made public on Monday 3 February 2014.

To assist political parties and associated entities with completing their return online, the eReturns Political Party Quick Reference Guide and eReturns Associated Entity Quick Reference Guide are available.

National media contact:

Phil Diak | Director Media
AEC, Canberra
02 6271 4415
0413 452 539 media@aec.gov.au

In the days when Rupert didn't pretend he wasn't about regime change

2. MURDOCK [sic], BY SWINGING HIS NEWSPAPER CHAIN BEHIND THE ALP, PLAYED A SUBSTANTIAL ROLE IN THE LABOR VICTORY OF DECEMBER 1972. HE IS SATISFIED THAT HE TOOK THE CORRECT POSITION AT THAT TIME, SINCE IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO HAVE A CHANGE AFTER 23 YEARS. LIBERAL/COUNTRY LEADERSHIP HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY WEARY INTELLECTUALLY. HOWEVER, MURDOCK IS DISAPPOINTED BY LABOR'S PERFORMANCE. HE EXPECTS TO SUPPORT THE OPPOSITION IN THE NEXT ELECTION.

Full U.S.Embassy cable text here.