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The federal election is coming up. It happens about every three years. It’s for electing the government for the whole country – the federal government. There will be more information on the election in the next edition of About Time.
Voting is compulsory for all Australian citizens aged 18 years or over.
If you are in prison, you can and must vote if you are serving a sentence of less than three years.
If you are on remand, you maintain full voting rights. If you don’t vote, you will need to provide a ‘valid and sufficient reason’ why or pay a $20 penalty. Unfortunately, if you are serving a sentence of three years or more, you are not able to vote in this election.
Voting is the way we choose who represents our views and interests in government. Australia is a representative democracy, where each vote is equal. Governments make decisions about all aspects of our lives. While state or territory governments make decisions about a lot of things, including police and prisons, the federal government has its own set of responsibilities. These include: taxes; defence and foreign affairs; trade; immigration; most social services including pensions and more. Voting is a way of being part of those decisions. It’s a way to hold governments accountable to the people and to have a say. If you don’t like what a government is doing, you can vote differently next time. So while voting might not feel like it’s doing much, not voting is not doing anything at all!
Before you can vote, you must be enrolled. Enrol means putting your name and address on a list of voters.
Many people in prison are already enrolled, maybe from a previous election. You can ask someone in prison to help you check if you are enrolled to vote.
If you’re not enrolled or need to change your details, you must fill in an enrollment form. There is a special form for people in prison. Prison staff at your location can help you.
If you do not have an address out of prison, you can either put the address of a next of kin (who is enrolled) if you haven’t enrolled before, or if you cannot do this, you can put where you were born. If you don’t know where you were born, you can put an address to where you have the closest connection.
You might need proof of identification, such as a driver’s license, passport number, Medicare card number, or citizenship certificate. If you do not have these, someone else on the electoral roll will need to prove that they know you. If a staff member or another incarcerated person is on the electoral roll, they can complete this section on the form. Prison staff can put the correctional facility address and phone number down.
Enrolment shuts one week after an election date is set.
If you’re on remand, or your sentence is for less than three years, it is compulsory to vote.
If a mobile polling team is visiting the prison, you can vote in-person. Ask prison staff if this will happen at your prison. If a mobile polling team is not visiting, you will need to vote by mail. Prisoners can register to be a General Postal Voter and automatically receive ballot papers in the post or can apply for a single event postal vote once an election has been announced. The cut off for registering for postal voting is by 6:00pm on the Wednesday before the election. Ask staff at your prison to help you do this. The Australian Electoral Committee will also be visiting prisons and providing information about enrolling and voting.
Voting in the federal election includes voting in two ‘houses’, which are the House of Representatives and the Senate
The federal election uses preferential voting. This means, voters rank the candidates in their order of preference, with ‘1’ being the preferred candidate, ‘2’ the second preference, and so on.
Voters elect someone to represent their ‘electorate’ in the House of Representatives. An electorate is a geographical area represented by a member of the Australian Parliament. There are currently 151 electorates in Australia. Each electorate has one representative, so there are 151 members. Electorates are based on population; an average of 110,000 voters live in each electorate.
When voting in the House of Representatives, voters must write a number in the box beside every name on the ballot-paper: '1' for their first preference, '2' for their second preference and so on, until all the boxes are numbered.
The federal election is coming up. It happens about every three years. It’s for electing the government for the whole country – the federal government. There will be more information on the election in the next edition of About Time.
Voting is compulsory for all Australian citizens aged 18 years or over.
If you are in prison, you can and must vote if you are serving a sentence of less than three years.
If you are on remand, you maintain full voting rights. If you don’t vote, you will need to provide a ‘valid and sufficient reason’ why or pay a $20 penalty. Unfortunately, if you are serving a sentence of three years or more, you are not able to vote in this election.
Voting is the way we choose who represents our views and interests in government. Australia is a representative democracy, where each vote is equal. Governments make decisions about all aspects of our lives. While state or territory governments make decisions about a lot of things, including police and prisons, the federal government has its own set of responsibilities. These include: taxes; defence and foreign affairs; trade; immigration; most social services including pensions and more. Voting is a way of being part of those decisions. It’s a way to hold governments accountable to the people and to have a say. If you don’t like what a government is doing, you can vote differently next time. So while voting might not feel like it’s doing much, not voting is not doing anything at all!
Before you can vote, you must be enrolled. Enrol means putting your name and address on a list of voters.
Many people in prison are already enrolled, maybe from a previous election. You can ask someone in prison to help you check if you are enrolled to vote.
If you’re not enrolled or need to change your details, you must fill in an enrollment form. There is a special form for people in prison. Prison staff at your location can help you.
If you do not have an address out of prison, you can either put the address of a next of kin (who is enrolled) if you haven’t enrolled before, or if you cannot do this, you can put where you were born. If you don’t know where you were born, you can put an address to where you have the closest connection.
You might need proof of identification, such as a driver’s license, passport number, Medicare card number, or citizenship certificate. If you do not have these, someone else on the electoral roll will need to prove that they know you. If a staff member or another incarcerated person is on the electoral roll, they can complete this section on the form. Prison staff can put the correctional facility address and phone number down.
Enrolment shuts one week after an election date is set.
If you’re on remand, or your sentence is for less than three years, it is compulsory to vote.
If a mobile polling team is visiting the prison, you can vote in-person. Ask prison staff if this will happen at your prison. If a mobile polling team is not visiting, you will need to vote by mail. Prisoners can register to be a General Postal Voter and automatically receive ballot papers in the post or can apply for a single event postal vote once an election has been announced. The cut off for registering for postal voting is by 6:00pm on the Wednesday before the election. Ask staff at your prison to help you do this. The Australian Electoral Committee will also be visiting prisons and providing information about enrolling and voting.
Voting in the federal election includes voting in two ‘houses’, which are the House of Representatives and the Senate
The federal election uses preferential voting. This means, voters rank the candidates in their order of preference, with ‘1’ being the preferred candidate, ‘2’ the second preference, and so on.
Voters elect someone to represent their ‘electorate’ in the House of Representatives. An electorate is a geographical area represented by a member of the Australian Parliament. There are currently 151 electorates in Australia. Each electorate has one representative, so there are 151 members. Electorates are based on population; an average of 110,000 voters live in each electorate.
When voting in the House of Representatives, voters must write a number in the box beside every name on the ballot-paper: '1' for their first preference, '2' for their second preference and so on, until all the boxes are numbered.
Preferential voting allows for votes to transfer from one candidate to another.
If a candidate gets an ‘absolute majority’ – more than half – of first preference votes, they are elected. However, if no candidate wins more than half the first preference vote, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated from the race. Their votes are then transferred to whichever candidate the voters marked as their second preference. The process of transferring votes according to preferences continues until one candidate has an absolute majority of votes. They then become elected.
Voters also choose senators to represent their state or territory. There are 76 senators, with 12 senators elected to represent each state and two senators elected to represent each territory. The Australian Constitution says that states must have equal representation in the Senate, but this does not apply to territories. That’s why there are fewer territory senators than state senators. Senators have six year terms, so often only half of the senators are voted on in each federal election (which comes around every three or so years).
The counting system for the Senate is different to the House of Representatives. The number of senators elected in each State and Territory is decided in proportion to the number of votes; for example, if a party receives half the votes in the senate, this will elect six senators (half of 12). Usually, this means a wider range of political parties and/or independents can be elected to the Senate. To be elected however, a candidate must gain a ‘quota’ or proportion of the state or territory votes. The counting process for a Senate election is complicated and — it sometimes takes several weeks after an election to count all the Senate votes and finalise the result.
Voters have a choice of voting above-the-line or below-the-line:
There are many people with sentences of three years or more who cannot vote. And people who are eligible to vote often face challenges. Facilitating people in prison to enrol, to access information and to register has been low compared to other members of society. It’s important that people in prison can access voting rights – it encourages people to exercise their civil and political obligations and engage with society, which is key to moving forward after prison.
Preferential voting allows for votes to transfer from one candidate to another.
If a candidate gets an ‘absolute majority’ – more than half – of first preference votes, they are elected. However, if no candidate wins more than half the first preference vote, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated from the race. Their votes are then transferred to whichever candidate the voters marked as their second preference. The process of transferring votes according to preferences continues until one candidate has an absolute majority of votes. They then become elected.
Voters also choose senators to represent their state or territory. There are 76 senators, with 12 senators elected to represent each state and two senators elected to represent each territory. The Australian Constitution says that states must have equal representation in the Senate, but this does not apply to territories. That’s why there are fewer territory senators than state senators. Senators have six year terms, so often only half of the senators are voted on in each federal election (which comes around every three or so years).
The counting system for the Senate is different to the House of Representatives. The number of senators elected in each State and Territory is decided in proportion to the number of votes; for example, if a party receives half the votes in the senate, this will elect six senators (half of 12). Usually, this means a wider range of political parties and/or independents can be elected to the Senate. To be elected however, a candidate must gain a ‘quota’ or proportion of the state or territory votes. The counting process for a Senate election is complicated and — it sometimes takes several weeks after an election to count all the Senate votes and finalise the result.
Voters have a choice of voting above-the-line or below-the-line:
There are many people with sentences of three years or more who cannot vote. And people who are eligible to vote often face challenges. Facilitating people in prison to enrol, to access information and to register has been low compared to other members of society. It’s important that people in prison can access voting rights – it encourages people to exercise their civil and political obligations and engage with society, which is key to moving forward after prison.
What is the legal sentence period after which an inmate must reapply for the DSP?
Parole is a process that gives some people the ability to get out of prison and serve the last part of their sentence in the community, under the supervision of Community Corrections (which used to be known as Probation and Parole).
The Ombudsman is an independent organisation that oversees complaints against government decisions and actions. Each state/territory has their own Ombudsman. The Ombudsman responds to a complaint by investigating from both sides what has happened and why.
A parole order will include general and specific conditions. These include getting approval from the relevant authority for any travel interstate, or overseas.
In law, silence is considered a fundamental right that provides fairness in criminal proceedings.
This article discusses some of the human rights that may be relevant in prison with reference to human rights protections under the Human Rights Act 2019 (QLD) in Queensland.
I wonder if you could explain the new "No Body No Parole" law in New South Wales, where now people charged with murder or manslaughter need letters from the head of police?
A parole order will include general and specific conditions. These include getting approval from the relevant authority for any travel interstate, or overseas.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
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