ࡱ> GIF5@ Ebjbj22 "TXX=$ TXt`bbbbbb$R=t ``l `a{b $<0  GIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS: YOUNG PEOPLE, HOMELESSNESS & DEMOCRACY Improving access to the vote for people experiencing homelessness What do we mean by Democracy? That depends on who youre talking to. Being an optimistic fellow, Gandhi described it as a system that gives the weak the same chance as the strong. A more cynical Benjamin Franklin defined democracy quite differently, saying it was two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. While it is not a perfect system, we like to think Gandhis version of democracy is closer to the truth, that in Australia it means everyone has the chance to have a say in how their country is governed, and by whom. (1) Before the last federal election the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) ran a TV campaign to encourage people to enroll and vote. The voiceover said: On election day every voice will be heard, and every vote will count. But what the ad did not acknowledge is that there is a significant group in our society who cannot fully participate in democracy: people experiencing homelessness. In effect, they lack a political voice. Homelessness: a barrier to participation in democracy We dont have any solid figures on what percentage of Australias homeless population is registered to vote. (2) It has never been investigated. But the barriers that stand between them and the ballot box suggest the numbers are very low. The most obvious barrier is their lack of a permanent address. You cant write third alleyway on the left, or no fixed abode, or youth refuge tonight, no idea tomorrow night in the address section of your enrolment form. Nor will your details be updated on the electoral roll if you keep moving from one form of temporary accommodation to another. Secondly, homeless voters have never been a target group for the AEC. There has been a huge push to get more young people, and more rural people, onto the roll that is, those who are in secure housing. The AEC even has special remote mobile polling teams to visit isolated communities, and recently launched an extensive four-year study aimed at increasing enrolment rates among young people the AEC describes it as a major investment in Australias future. (3) But no effort has ever been made to make the vote more accessible for people experiencing homelessness. Another barrier is that someone who enrolls but does not vote can be fined. If they dont receive the fine because they dont have a letterbox or they have moved repeatedly, and if they dont write to the AEC giving a valid reason for failing to vote and theres no clear guidelines on whats a valid reason they can be fined $50 plus court costs. If they dont pay up, they could even end up serving a few days in jail. For people whose lives have been turned upside down by homelessness, the threat of that fine is a real disincentive to enrolling. They dont know what their situation will be come polling day. They may well be in crisis and have other, much more urgent priorities. Attitudes to Voting Some people experiencing homelessness say voting is a pointless exercise; others are keen to participate. Attitudes vary, just as they do amongst the general population. It is possible, however, that as a group people who have experienced homelessness may show a higher than average degree of disillusionment with the political system. Prior to the last federal election, Melbournes Hanover Welfare services did a study asking their clients about voting: 78 per cent felt politicians have little or no understanding of their predicament. Two-thirds felt politicians do not care about people in their situation. Close to half felt the outcome of the election would make little or no difference to their circumstances. More than one quarter were definitely not enrolled, and another 13 per cent did not know whether they were enrolled. With the Federal Election less than a week away, 61 per cent were intending to vote; 19 were intending not to, and 20 per cent were unsure. A staff member at the Australian Bureau of Statistics told me: If your name is not on the electoral roll then effectively, as far as the system goes, you dont really exist. Some people experiencing homelessness might wish to keep their engagement with the system to a minimum, and are not interested in enrolling or voting; but the point is this: those who do wish to exercise their democratic rights must be able to do so. I spoke to a young man called Michael Sutherland who is currently working as a Big Issue vendor. Michael is 19 and now has his own place after living on the streets for a year. Michael voted in the last federal election; he said he thinks its important for people experiencing homelessness to be able to vote if they want to, and that it is unfair to fine them if they enroll but dont make it to the ballot box: People in that situation need support, he said, not more hassles. Michael told me: Some people dont want to vote because theyre sick of bullshit processes, they dont trust politicians, or they just dont care because theyre caught up in drugs. I vote because I want to help clean up the country, and I want a fair government. The policies that would win Michaels vote include cheaper public transport, lower fuel prices, solutions to unemployment, boosting the levels of income support payments and the abolition of work for the dole. People should be paid properly to do that work, so they gain more skills, they can live better and start to get a good career happening, he said. What is the significance of the Homeless Vote? There are plenty of people like Michael who want to vote but probably wont because they have no fixed address. This is a significant issue: the homeless population of Australia totals more than an entire federal electorate. These are the people experiencing the hard-end consequences of government policies. To give them a political voice could have some very interesting effects, particularly in marginal seats (its worth noting that in the 1993 federal election, 13 seats were won by less than 500 votes). The last federal election was our most expensive ever: it cost $100 million to run. But none of that money was put towards making voting more accessible for the estimated 88 000 Australians who are homeless and of voting age. We could speculate as to why no politician has ever bothered trying to capture the homeless vote: these prospective voters are unlikely to buy the argument that the country is in great shape; they cant make cash donations to the party offering them the most promising vision of the future. But if they had more of a political voice, who knows politicians might begin to consider their needs more closely. So much for the bad news now for some good news. The Itinerant Electors Provision: an Avenue for Change? Just over two years ago, The Big Issue (my former employer) launched a Votes for the Homeless campaign, aimed at improving access to the vote for people experiencing homelessness. Prior to that, the homeless vote had never been examined on a national scale. When we asked the AEC why this was the case, their spokesperson sounded supportive: he admitted that the issue deserved attention, but because of the way our electoral system is structured, people experiencing homelessness do tend to slip through the gaps. Along with the Homeless Persons Legal Clinic (run by PILCH), which has contributed some really substantial expertise and resources to this issue, we found a potential avenue to address the problem: a half-forgotten little section of the Electoral Act called the Itinerant Electors Provision. (5) This provision is intended as a voting avenue for people with no fixed address. But hardly anyone knows about it: there are only around 4000 itinerant electors in Australia, and according to the AEC 99 per cent of them are not homeless, but are fruit pickers and other seasonal workers. The Itinerant Electors has never been explored or publicised as a voting option for people who are homeless. One good thing about the Itinerant Electors provision is that if you register under it, but dont make it to the ballot box, you will not be fined. However, the provision would need to be tinkered with before it could function smoothly for people experiencing homelessness: an itinerant voter must have been staying at their current address for less than one month; but people experiencing homelessness often spend several months in temporary accommodation, so that time limit needs to be flexible. The Itinerant Electors enrolment form also needs to be simplified so its more user friendly. Early last year, The Big Issue, the Homeless Persons Legal Clinic and the Council to Homeless Persons made submissions to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, recommending that various measures be put in place to make it easier for homeless people to exercise their right to vote. Our recommendations focused on revamping the Itinerant Electors Provision, working with homelessness services to help their clients to enroll and vote, increasing voter awareness and making the whole process more accessible and less punitive. (6) Next election: homelessness on the agenda? The committee took most of our suggestions on board. In its recent report on the last Federal election (7), the committee said it planned to amend the Itinerant Electors Provision to apply more clearly to homeless persons, and to simplify the enrolment form. The AEC intends to target homeless persons in its next public awareness campaign, to inform them on how they can vote under the provision. We would also like to see them setting up mobile polling booths in locations where there are high numbers of homeless people. In 2000, after a five-year campaign headed by The Big Issue in the UK, Britain changed its voting laws so that people experiencing homelessness could register by giving an address of local connection a park or drop-in centre where they spend time. Prior to 2000, this group could not vote at all. (8) Anecdotally, the uptake at Britains last election was fairly low. But by recognising in law that homelessness does exist and that homelessness creates barriers to participation in society, and by trying to address one of those barriers, the legislation is significant. It was welcomed by UK charities as a step forward for the rights of people experiencing homelessness. UK research into missing voters concluded that a significant proportion of them are young people, particularly those from ethnic minorities, as well as people who are homeless or transient (which includes the large Gypsy population in the UK). (9) Here in Australia, the AEC is currently looking at how voting can be made more accessible for people experiencing homelessness, and says it plans to consult with the homelessness sector on this issue (one note here: I think its important to remind the AEC that services cannot be lumped with extra work they are not resourced to do). For young people, this question of access to the vote is particularly significant. When homelessness is part of a persons early experiences, a sense of powerlessness and disconnection from society can become very entrenched. Many young people already feel politics has nothing to do with their own lives and circumstances, and dont see voting as worthwhile or relevant. Making the voting process less onerous for people experiencing homelessness is all very well. Legislative change is all very well. But unless those people feel that voting is actually worthwhile, unless politicians begin to consider and communicate with them, theres unlikely to be a stampede on the polling booths. (10) Putting the future of the powerful people who run our country more firmly into the hands of those who are most marginalised is a small but significant step towards greater equality in theory, at least. How it works in practice remains to be seen: whether, as Gandhi might have envisaged, there is a shift in the balance of power between the weak and the strong or whether, as Benjamin Franklin suspected, the lamb still ends up as lunch. The AEC is currently recruiting a PR agency to run an awareness campaign; that agency will talk to homeless agencies about the best strategies for helping their clients enroll and vote. One positive spin-off is that this should generate some publicity, and put homelessness on the public agenda. This will be our opportunity to remind the media, the government and wider society that yes, these changes should be welcomed as a step forward for the rights of people experiencing homelessness but when youre actually in that situation, where your life has been turned upside down and all your energy goes towards day-to-day survival, exercising your democratic power probably the last thing on your mind; that having a home, a job, and a sense that you are valued by the society you live in is where the real power lies. Sources and footnotes (1) Australian citizens are legally entitled and required to vote provided they are 18 or older, have not been convicted of treason, are not serving a prison term of more than five years and are capable of understanding the nature and significance of voting (which rules out some people suffering from mental illness). Source: Australian Politics Online (2) Hanover Welfare Services estimates that approximately one-third of homeless people are not registered to vote: Michael Horn, Social and Democratic Exclusion: Giving Voice to the Homeless, Hanover Welfare Service, November 2001. The Australian Federation of Homeless Organisations (AFHO) estimates that more than 90 per cent of homeless people are not registered to vote: AFHO Media Release, 27 June 2024 ( HYPERLINK "http://www.afho.org.au.afhonews/mediareleases/20010727.htm" www.afho.org.au.afhonews/mediareleases/20010727.htm) Taking into account the fact that there are 88 000 homeless Australians who are of voting age, PILCH has used the above figures to estimate the number of homeless people who may have been eligible to vote in the last federal election but did not do so as ranging from 29 000 to 80 000. (3) Youth Electoral Study, Australian Electoral Commission, June 2003 (4) Figures taken from Hanover Stats and Facts: Homelessness and the Federal Election, November 2001. Sample size was 175 clients: 55 per cent were female; 30 per cent were parents; 35 per cent were aged 18 to 25; 38 per cent were aged 26 to 40 years; the remaining 27 per cent were over age 40 (5) Itinerant Electors Provision, Section 96, Australian Electoral Act (6) The Homeless Persons Legal Clinic has also lodged a substantial submission to the Victorian Government focusing on this issue with regard to State elections. (7) The 2001 Federal Election Report of the Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2001 Federal Election, and Matters Related Thereto, June 2003, Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Commonwealth government (8) As well as helping to enfranchise the homeless population of that country, the UKs Representation of the People Act (2000) also gave voting rights to remand prisoners, squatters and certain patients of mental institutions. These groups could also send in postal votes for the first time. (9) Research undertaken by Harry Barnes, British MP, quoted in Voting Rights for the Homeless, Traveler Law Research Centre, Cardiff Law School Occasional Discussion Paper (10) However, the proposed introduction of requirements for all voters to produce original forms of ID is of real concern; this would further disadvantage people who are in transient or unstable life situations and who do not have access to these documents for example women fleeing domestic violence or people sleeping rough. F r""" #$&**,@,..:;r<<,=U=V=> >Q>R>>>崟崉u&h: 0JCJOJQJ^JaJmH sH +jh: CJOJQJU^JaJmH sH (h: 6CJOJQJ]^JaJmH sH "h: CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH h: 6CJOJQJ] h: 5\h: CJOJQJ]h: CJOJQJh: h: 5CJOJQJ\.F ] ^ &'$a$$a$$a$ErsWX w"x"""""##$$&&''$a$')),,@,A,Q.R.0011B3C3445577t8u8::; ;m< $[$\$a$$a$m<n<V=W=>>????AA^A_ABBBBCCDDE$a$[$\$ $[$\$a$> ??@S@A_ABBB*B*ph=TF]^& ' rsWXwx!!$$@$A$Q&R&(())B+C+,,--//t0u0223 3m4n4V5W566777799^9_9::::;;<<=M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M90M900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000>E#)'m<E$&'(E%6Q66=XT _Hlt46631197 _Hlt46631187 _Hlt46631188}666=@@@~666===CHPCHPCHPCHPCHPCHPCHPCHPCHPuser: TMC+,;n<==@k=`@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z ArialS PalatinoBook Antiqua"hsxsxF 3?F 3?!r4d==3QH?TMGIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS:CHPuserOh+'0   < H T`hpxGIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS:IVICHPHPHP Normal.dotEuserl.d2erMicrosoft Word 10.0@F#@b@bF 3՜.+,D՜.+,L hp|  CHP?=A GIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS: Title 8@ _PID_HLINKSA3';http://www.afho.org.au.afhonews/mediareleases/20010727.htm  !"#$%&'()*,-./012345789:;<=?@ABCDEHRoot Entry F|bJ1Table+WordDocument"TSummaryInformation(6DocumentSummaryInformation8>CompObjj  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q