1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,920
Speaker 1: It feels like the major parties in particular have been

2
00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,320
Speaker 1: on the hustings for a long long time now for

3
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:06,000
Speaker 1: the excell life.

4
00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:08,879
Speaker 2: I mean, are they ever really off? But they probably

5
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:10,959
Speaker 2: shouldn't be really off the hustings?

6
00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:12,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably right. It does feel like it's been a

7
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,480
Speaker 1: long drawn at procedure before we actually got that moment

8
00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:17,480
Speaker 1: when the Prime Minister announced the data the election.

9
00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,040
Speaker 3: It has been May one, of course it is and

10
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,440
Speaker 3: from the Australian Electoral Commission.

11
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:25,200
Speaker 2: Checking in with Alex Morris.

12
00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,760
Speaker 4: Hello Alex, Alex morning, Thursday morning, Lisa. How are we doing?

13
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:29,440
Speaker 1: Good?

14
00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:30,960
Speaker 2: Good, thank you for joining us.

15
00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 3: First of all, most important question, when is the deadline

16
00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 3: for people to enroll or what often catches people out

17
00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 3: updating their details?

18
00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,200
Speaker 4: Well that's a very very good question. It is eight

19
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,640
Speaker 4: pm and that's local times, so wherever you are in

20
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:49,080
Speaker 4: the country, ye on Monday, so the eighteenth of April

21
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,040
Speaker 4: Easter Monday, you can visit AEC dot gov dot au

22
00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 4: and either enroll for the first time and welcome if

23
00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,640
Speaker 4: you're a first time voter, or if you've moved. You

24
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,680
Speaker 4: can also update your enrollment details if your name's change

25
00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,040
Speaker 4: something like that. The other thing is you can also

26
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,800
Speaker 4: use that to check which electric you're in, because all

27
00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:10,920
Speaker 4: but one of the electrics are in WA. Boundaries have

28
00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:14,479
Speaker 4: shifted between and now okay, I got.

29
00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:14,640
Speaker 2: To go on.

30
00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,200
Speaker 3: I had to update my details, did it the other day,

31
00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:19,920
Speaker 3: and I can say from experience.

32
00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:20,520
Speaker 2: Could not be easier.

33
00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,240
Speaker 3: Just have your driver's license with you to get your

34
00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:25,800
Speaker 3: number and you're done.

35
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:28,120
Speaker 4: We make it as easy as possible.

36
00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:29,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, hey ole expair chat.

37
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:31,360
Speaker 1: It's not people with COVID right now, but the fair

38
00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,000
Speaker 1: chance people listening right now could have it in the

39
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,160
Speaker 1: next five or six weeks. So if they've got it

40
00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: at the time, how do they vote?

41
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:40,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, we're definitely planning for that. It's going to

42
00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,600
Speaker 4: be Australia's first fedral election in the time of COVID,

43
00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:46,760
Speaker 4: and we've had two years to sort of really put

44
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,320
Speaker 4: the planning into that. The most important thing we're saying

45
00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,520
Speaker 4: is to plan your vote. For most Australian voters, it

46
00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:55,960
Speaker 4: is going to be a very similar experience to the

47
00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:58,960
Speaker 4: last election and indeed Lusty State election that you guys

48
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,960
Speaker 4: had over there, So it's going to be in person

49
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:04,440
Speaker 4: voting for most people. We're going to have COVID safe

50
00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,280
Speaker 4: polling places. That's going to include things like hygiene officers

51
00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:12,120
Speaker 4: wiping down surfaces and even cleaning the pencils between voters

52
00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 4: using them, and things like ventilation as well to keep

53
00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,160
Speaker 4: things safe. Now if you are if you are concerned

54
00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,480
Speaker 4: or there are you know you might be immune, a

55
00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:25,480
Speaker 4: compromise that sort of thing. You can also look at

56
00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,040
Speaker 4: pre polling which will open from Monday the night of May,

57
00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 4: and we'll have a list of freepole places up on

58
00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,200
Speaker 4: aec dot govtu. You can also apply for a postal vote,

59
00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,120
Speaker 4: and that you can apply for a postal vote up

60
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,800
Speaker 4: until the Wednesday before polling day, so there's plenty of

61
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 4: time to do that and a nice big period after

62
00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:47,440
Speaker 4: polling day for your post a vote to come back

63
00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,200
Speaker 4: as well if you do test positive in those last

64
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,880
Speaker 4: three days and you are required to isolate. We're also

65
00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:56,079
Speaker 4: working on a telephone voting system that will be there

66
00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:58,959
Speaker 4: as an emergency measure for those people in that circumstance

67
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,320
Speaker 4: that you know, literally can't leave the house, and we'll

68
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,280
Speaker 4: have more details about that available on our website soon,

69
00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,160
Speaker 4: but it is a system that we've used before. We're

70
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:09,920
Speaker 4: just rolling it out to more people this time and

71
00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:11,840
Speaker 4: you know, we're hoping it's not going to be very

72
00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,920
Speaker 4: many Australians at all. And if you do play your vote,

73
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 4: there's a good chance that even if you do test positive,

74
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:18,760
Speaker 4: you may already have voted. So we're all good, Alex.

75
00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,440
Speaker 3: Do a lot of people really do donkey votes on

76
00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,000
Speaker 3: election day.

77
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,079
Speaker 2: Creative drawing you've seen on a ballot going.

78
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,240
Speaker 4: To actually at least there's two different things there. So

79
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,320
Speaker 4: a donkey vote is someone voting straight down the lot line,

80
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:36,800
Speaker 4: just going one, two, three, four.

81
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,680
Speaker 3: Five, six, Oh okay, right, of course, probably two different things.

82
00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we can't really tell if that's you know,

83
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:47,000
Speaker 4: that could very well be someone order that their preferred

84
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,440
Speaker 4: candidates are in with. Yeah, possibly, say yeah. The other

85
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,720
Speaker 4: thing you're talking about is drawing a little picture on the.

86
00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,120
Speaker 2: Ballot paper, taking it seriously.

87
00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:58,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a certain picture that a lot of people

88
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,720
Speaker 4: like to draw. Look a little bit like the eggplants emoji.

89
00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:03,000
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, funny.

90
00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,120
Speaker 4: Now, that doesn't make your ballot informal, so long as

91
00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,560
Speaker 4: you number the box it's ballot paper. Yeah, yeah, you

92
00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 4: can totally do it.

93
00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:16,760
Speaker 3: Oh okay, so number one and then yeah two three right, one.

94
00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,960
Speaker 4: Two three four, You know, every every box on the

95
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,000
Speaker 4: House ballot paper one to six above the line one

96
00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,360
Speaker 4: or twelve below the line on the Senate paper, to

97
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,159
Speaker 4: get that education out there. But what I will also

98
00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,240
Speaker 4: say as well, we hire one hundred thousand people to

99
00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:31,760
Speaker 4: run the election, to count your votes. Things like that.

100
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:34,360
Speaker 4: Some of these people are going to be your your nanak,

101
00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:35,960
Speaker 4: your your auntie, your uncle.

102
00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:41,080
Speaker 1: Keep it in mind to look at, yeah, your little

103
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,080
Speaker 1: drawer and then seen it all before.

104
00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,320
Speaker 4: That's why she's a true And the other thing they

105
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,479
Speaker 4: have literally seen it all before. That'll be looking at

106
00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:51,159
Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands of votes on the night. I don't

107
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:52,880
Speaker 4: think you're going to have anything that's going to surprise.

108
00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:57,440
Speaker 3: You have put it in a whole new perspective for me, Alex,

109
00:04:57,520 --> 00:04:59,279
Speaker 3: not that I a drawer and you.

110
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,760
Speaker 1: Still the valid voters right boxes, hey, Lex. So there

111
00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:04,560
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who are political animals, and

112
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,760
Speaker 1: they're loving the process already. They love the theater, they

113
00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:11,159
Speaker 1: love voting in person and getting the old democracy sausage.

114
00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan of the old democracy sausage as well.

115
00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,400
Speaker 4: We don't run them here at the AC, run by

116
00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,360
Speaker 4: charities all around the country. It's great to see there's

117
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,239
Speaker 4: actually a Perth based group. They run a Twitter account

118
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:27,600
Speaker 4: called Democracy Sausage and they actually they crowdsource information about

119
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,440
Speaker 4: where to get the best sausages on the day. So

120
00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:31,320
Speaker 4: there are a pro follow if you're on Twitter.

121
00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:33,920
Speaker 2: Okay, and that's not what we were talking about, drawing

122
00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:34,360
Speaker 2: on your things.

123
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,160
Speaker 3: No, just quickly, how do preferences work? And our preference

124
00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:41,159
Speaker 3: steel is still a thing?

125
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 4: Okay? Preference steels are definitely not a thing. Okays, as

126
00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,560
Speaker 4: to how preferences work, how long have you got.

127
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:49,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly in a nutshell.

128
00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:51,000
Speaker 4: I'm a bit of a note about this stuff. So

129
00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,240
Speaker 4: preference steels are basically you know, I don't know. I

130
00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:55,920
Speaker 4: love to talk about it because it was a thing

131
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,560
Speaker 4: for a long time. Yes, Nowadays, when they're talking about

132
00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,800
Speaker 4: preference steels, all they're talking about is a party recommending

133
00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:04,279
Speaker 4: that you assign your second or third preference to a

134
00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,080
Speaker 4: different party on their how to vote card. Now, okay,

135
00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,440
Speaker 4: the thing, the really important thing to remember is that

136
00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,240
Speaker 4: no party controls your preferences anymore. You can follow how

137
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:14,080
Speaker 4: to Vote card if you want to, but you're also

138
00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,880
Speaker 4: free not to. You can. The number that you order

139
00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:18,920
Speaker 4: your preferences in is the number that is the way

140
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,200
Speaker 4: that your preferences will flow. So it's always up to you.

141
00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 2: Thank goodness, because back in the day that I was very.

142
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,559
Speaker 3: I always was very confused and conflicted about the whole

143
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,320
Speaker 3: preference thing and the fact that I could vote for

144
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:30,880
Speaker 3: someone and it doesn't end up where I.

145
00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,160
Speaker 1: And not necessarily what I vote. What you might have

146
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:34,799
Speaker 1: helped someone out you didn't want to, which.

147
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,360
Speaker 4: I spend in the news over in Wa over the

148
00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,240
Speaker 4: last year, you had a you've recently changed the way

149
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:44,400
Speaker 4: that your Upper House votes work so that they had

150
00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:46,360
Speaker 4: that sort of group ticket voting someone over there, And

151
00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:48,640
Speaker 4: I understand, they've just changed the way things are working. Yeah,

152
00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,160
Speaker 4: And we made that change federally in twenty six stems,

153
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:53,440
Speaker 4: so now nowadays it only follows your numbers.

154
00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, Alex, the changing boundaries since twenty nineteen, So that's

155
00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:59,000
Speaker 1: all above board, unlike the gerrymandering they talk about in

156
00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:01,680
Speaker 1: the American system, where it's all, you know, one part

157
00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:03,839
Speaker 1: of the other trying to get influenced and change things illegally.

158
00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:09,920
Speaker 4: Absolutely right. So we have a redistribution process that goes

159
00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,640
Speaker 4: through about a year and involves public consultation. It involves

160
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,680
Speaker 4: community forums, which we had to run virtually this time,

161
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,960
Speaker 4: thank you COVID, so people can have their say at

162
00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:21,840
Speaker 4: every point, and people did have their say for w

163
00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,680
Speaker 4: AS so we made proposals, the public came back to

164
00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:30,160
Speaker 4: some thoughts and we ultimately put forward report and the

165
00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:34,680
Speaker 4: Redistribution Committee for a report. We helped them. And that

166
00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,960
Speaker 4: means that if you're in every any electorate except Fremantle

167
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,040
Speaker 4: in Wa, the boundaries of your electric have changed a

168
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:43,720
Speaker 4: little bit. So it's a good idea to check you

169
00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,520
Speaker 4: enrollment and make sure it's you're still in the electric you.

170
00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:50,360
Speaker 3: Think you are, okay, Alex, thank you so much, and

171
00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:55,120
Speaker 3: Monday eight pm cut off date for updating and enrolling.

172
00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:58,920
Speaker 4: Getting there, guys, it could not be more important.

173
00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:00,320
Speaker 1: Than appreciate everything in Layman's terms of them.

174
00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:00,680
Speaker 2: Yeah,