Voting

The right to vote is a fundamental human right. According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, this right lies at the core of democratic government based on the consent of the people.

However, in Australia, people experiencing homelessness continue to face great difficulties in exercising this right. The HPLC has been working for a number of years to address the numerous legislative and practical barriers that prevent people experiencing homelessness from participating in the electoral process at the local, state and federal level. Impediments to enrolments and voting for people experiencing homelessness include: social exclusion; lack of information and misinformation about enrolment and voting (particularly itinerant enrolment); inaccessibility of enrolment information; and the inaccessibility of voting stations.

The HPLC has participated in a number of electoral inquiries and has provided written and oral submissions recommending amendments to state and federal electoral laws and to practices by Victorian and Australian Electoral Commissions. The most recent of these submissions (which you can download below) was in response to the Federal Government’s Electoral Reform Green Paper - Strengthening Australia’s Democracy. The HPLC’s submissions have focused on the following:

• Legislative amendments:
  • to ensure that homelessness is recognised as a component of no-fixed address elector status;
    o to ensure that no-fixed address electors can have a ‘real place of living’ for 6 months (rather than 1 month) before they are obliged to enrol as ordinary electors; and 
  • to roll back the 2006 Cth amendments regarding enhanced proof of ID requirements and early closure of the roll.
• Practical measures such as:
  • Installation of mobile polling booths at locations frequented by people experiencing homelessness (eg Centrelink, homelessness service providers); 
  • Distribution of an information kit containing relevant and accessible information for homeless people and homelessness service providers regarding enrolment and voting procedures; 
  • Targeted advertising campaign to raise awareness about the importance of voting and to encourage people experiencing homelessness to enrol and vote; 
  • Training for election day site managers and volunteers addressing the needs how electoral workers might assist people from that group on Election Day.