The Electoral Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament in July 2025. It proposed making several changes to the Electoral Act 1993 including changing cutoff dates for electoral enrolment, changing voter eligibility for prisoners, changing the methods the Electoral Commission use to communicate with the public, increasing the size of the Electoral Commission’s board, changing rules around financial reporting and influencing voters.

The PSA made a submission on the Bill. We said there were some positive elements to this Bill that would improve the administration of the electoral system, such as in relation to electronic delivery, collection of registration information and updating of electors’ addresses. However, there were core components of this Bill that would disenfranchise voters without good cause.

The PSA’s submission focused on representing the views of workers in the Electoral Commission in relation to cut-off dates for voter enrolments. Our members thought that the proposal in the Bill would do little to increase the efficiency and timeliness of the voter count while having disproportionately negative effects on people’s right to vote. We argued that the Commission should be resourced appropriately to respond to the demands of our democratic processes. If the problem comes from the Commission being under-resourced to process enrolments and votes in the required time, the solution is to resource the Commission adequately to do its job.

You can read our submission below.

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