Who gets to vote? An inclusive electoral franchise for contemporary Australia: A Parliamentary Library Symposium

Friday 14 April 2023, 1:30pm – 3:45pm (AEST)
Parliament House Theatre, Canberra and live streamed
You can attend the event live or online

The franchise – the right to vote in Australian federal elections – is provided to Australian citizens who are 18 or older (subject to some disqualifiers). And through a quirk of legislative history, some non-citizens can indeed vote in federal elections. But for other non-citizen residents and minors who participate in Australian society and have an interest in the nation’s future, they do not have that right. In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who were not universally included in the franchise since federation, continue to be underrepresented on electoral rolls and in exercising their franchise.

This seminar brings together leading Australian scholars to consider an expansion of the right to vote and the reasons why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders continue to remain underrepresented. The seminar will be chaired by Dr Jill Sheppard, one of the Canberra Convenors of the Electoral Regulation Research Network and is presented in conjunction with the Parliamentary Library.

Presenters
Lisa Hill is Professor of Politics at the University of Adelaide. She has published electoral studies and democratic theory work in numerous journals and books including Compulsory voting: For and Against, Cambridge University Press, 2014 (with Jason Brennan) and How and Why to Regulate False Political Advertising in Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022 (with Max Douglass and Ravi Baltutis). Lisa is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia, convenor of the SA Chapter of the Electoral Regulation Research Network, Director of the Democracy, Security, Trust and Integrity Program at the Stretton Institute for Public Policy, and Research Chair of the Centre for Public Integrity.

Dr Dani Larkin is a Bundjalung, Kungarakany woman from Grafton, New South Wales, a public lawyer, and a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland. As an Indigenous legal academic, feminist, and advocate for constitutional reform and political empowerment of First Nation peoples, her research interests include Indigenous self-determination and cultural identity, electoral law and policy reform, Indigenous political participation and representation, comparative constitutional law, and international human rights.

Graeme Orr is a professor specialising in the law of electoral democracy at the University of Queensland. His books include The Law of Politics (2019, 2nd ed), one on elections as rituals, and The Law of Deliberative Democracy (with Ron Levy). In recognition of this work straddling public law and politics, Graeme was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences as well as the Australian Academy of Law. He is currently an adviser on the NSW iVote Panel and a regular media commentator.

Dr Jill Sheppard is a senior lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. Her research interests are elections and voting, compulsory voting, political participation, and public opinion, particularly in Australia but also in a comparative context. She is an investigator on several major survey studies of Australian public opinion and behaviour, including the Australian Election Study, World Values Survey, and Asian Barometer Survey.

Booking

This free symposium will be held in the theatre, Parliament House. Senators, Members, their staff and the public are welcome to attend online or in person.

A recording of the lecture will be made available on the Parliament of Australia website.

For further information, call Alyssa Caldrmoski on 02 6277 2610.

 Image: AEC Imgaes/Flickr.com