{"id":21850,"date":"2021-06-18T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/?p=21850"},"modified":"2025-07-28T16:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T06:01:26","slug":"historic-voter-suppression-complaint-made-to-human-rights-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/archive\/historic-voter-suppression-complaint-made-to-human-rights-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic voter suppression complaint made to Human Rights Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two Indigenous men from Arnhem Land have made an official complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission this week.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges voter suppression is taking place throughout remote regions of Australia through indirect discrimination by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).<\/p>\n

This complaint comprises three discrete complaints about the Commissioner\u2019s performance of functions and exercise of powers under the Act in relation to:<\/p>\n

(i) The maintenance of the Commonwealth electoral roll, and by arrangement the NT electoral roll, in respect of residents of Aboriginal communities who do not receive mail delivery directly to their residence (and instead receive mail at or care of a community post office, by mail bag, or by post box) \u2013 particularly the Commissioner\u2019s \u201cpolicy\u201d that he will not use the direct enrolment\/update power in ss 103A and 103B of the Act for such residents.<\/p>\n

(ii) The maintenance of the Commonwealth electoral roll, and by arrangement the NT electoral roll, in respect of residents of Aboriginal communities which do not have enumerated street addresses (with no mail directly to the residence) \u2013 particularly the Commissioner\u2019s practice whereby the lot numbers (if extant and known) which identify the specific \u201cplace of living\u201d for such residents are not recorded on the roll.<\/p>\n

(iii) The Commissioner\u2019s differential treatment whereby residents of sizeable Aboriginal communities (e.g. Maningrida, Wadeye and Galiwinku) in the electorate of Lingiari in the 2019 Federal election (and earlier elections) had a polling booth for voting on or prior to polling day for a substantially shorter time than was provided for other comparable towns in Lingiari (e.g. Nhulunbuy, Tennant Creek and Jabiru).<\/p>\n

The complainants, backed by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the United Workers Union (UWU), are concerned that the AEC is substantially undermining the voting rights and power of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

The MUA and the UWU stand against discrimination and racism wherever it may occur, and these unions have a long history of supporting the struggle of Indigenous peoples for rights and equality.<\/p>\n

MUA National Indigenous Officer, Thomas Mayor, said: \u201cIt is alarming that the AEC has adopted a policy that systematically reduces the voting power of Indigenous people at federal elections \u2013 the people who have the direst need to be heard in this country. The AEC must urgently change this discriminatory policy so that Indigenous people are better able to reach a ballot box during elections, and so they are no longer turned away at the ballot box en masse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complainant Matthew Ryan, Mayor of the West Arnhem Council, said: \u201cAll forms of discrimination must stop. The AEC needs to take rapid action to enrol the third of Indigenous people in the NT who are not able to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complainant Ross Mandi, Chairman of Yalu in Galiwinku, said: \u201cI\u2019ve worked on elections for years. There\u2019s always people turning up who are not able to vote. If the AEC did its job properly, this could stop right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

UWU Aboriginal and Torres Strait Organiser Wayne Kurnorth, said: \u201cOur members in Aboriginal communities like Ross Mandi need every opportunity to be heard. These communities have been left behind because politicians just don\u2019t care. It is the AEC\u2019s role to make sure Aboriginal people have their say.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ENDS\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media Contact: 1300 898 633, media@unitedworkers.org.au<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Indigenous men from Arnhem Land have made an official complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission this week. The complaint alleges voter suppression is taking place throughout remote regions of Australia through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65299,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850\/revisions\/65299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}