Bill
Electoral Legislation Amendment (COVID Enfranchisement) Bill 2022
passed, as at 2022-02-17. Finance portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Finance
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2022-02-09
- second reading — 2022-02-09
- second reading — 2022-02-10
- third reading — 2022-02-10
- introduced — 2022-02-14
- second reading — 2022-02-15
- second reading — 2022-02-16
- second reading — 2022-02-16
- third reading — 2022-02-16
- passed — 2022-02-16
- royal assent — 2022-02-17
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2022-02-09.
This bill would let voters who are forced to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19 vote in a federal election if they cannot get to a polling place in the last 72 hours before voting ends.
It would allow regulations to expand the existing secure telephone voting system, currently used by blind voters and Antarctic voters, to people covered by a public health order who cannot attend a polling place.
The new telephone voting option would only be available from 6.01pm on the Wednesday three days before polling day until polls close, and the measures would automatically end on 31 December 2022.
- Amends the Electoral Act to create contingency arrangements for voters in mandatory COVID-19 isolation or quarantine.
- Allows the Electoral Commissioner to make regulations expanding secure telephone voting to COVID-affected voters.
- Requires the Electoral Commissioner to inform the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader in writing before making such regulations.
Voters in Australia who are subject to a public health order requiring self-isolation or quarantine due to COVID-19 and cannot attend a polling place in the final 72 hours before polling day.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act