Advocacy group critical of AEC’s involvement in prisons

BY LUCAS BAIRD

While the youth of Australia couldn’t walk two feet without being reminded to enroll for this election; the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has virtually forgotten about prison inmates, according to an advocacy group.

The prisoner lobby group Justice Action, claims that the AEC has turned a blind eye to the voting rights of around 78 per cent of Australia’s prison population.

Justice Action Coordinator, Ben Collins, told City Hub that they were assured by the AEC that enrolment and eligibility information was being rolled out to prisons.

However, after a Justice Action survey last week, they found that this was not true.

“Of the several people we talked to directly, not one of them had been given any information about enrolment and that was across several NSW gaols,” Mr Collins said.

Mr Collins said it was “no mystery” why the AEC had failed to fulfil its obligation to ensure prisoners are registered to vote.

He claimed that from a management perspective, it was easier to ignore inmates and their issues.

“Both from a Corrective Services point of view and the Electoral Commission point of view, it’s easier to do nothing, easier to abandon them and easier to ignore the legal obligations,” he said.

In contrast, an AEC spokesperson told City Hub that they implemented legislation that makes it compulsory for inmates to vote and noted that prisoners serving a sentence of more than three years are ineligible to vote.

However the spokesperson failed to provide data regarding how many prisoners are enrolled to vote in this election.

The information gives details on how to enroll to vote in each state and how voting will proceed in gaol.

Mr Collins said it was not only the AEC at fault, indicating that Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) also had to shoulder some of the blame.

He said it was up to CSNSW to ensure that prisoners are given the opportunity to enroll and to follow up on this to make sure everything went smoothly.

“The department of corrections has got a certain obligation. The obligation is to report to the electoral commission and also to distribute material that the electoral commission gives it.”

But a CSNSW spokesperson said that the AEC material had been distributed to inmates around NSW and extra information had been provided.

The AEC also explained that they supply enrollment information to prisoners upon their arrival to the gaol and pointed out that the decision not to enroll is a personal one which CSNSW are not responsible for.