The Australian Electoral Commission has responded after the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, questioned the impartiality of the commission’s delivery of remote polling.
Price also suggested people handing out how-to-vote cards “overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities”, when seeking to counter the fact many Indigenous communities had voted yes to a voice to parliament.
The leading no campaigner Warren Mundine defended Price’s remarks with an extraordinary spray at the media to “wake up to yourselves and start asking real questions and making governments accountable”.
On Saturday evening the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told reporters in Canberra that “if you look at the Indigenous-dominated booths in places like Lockhart River, Palm Island, Mornington Island, Goodooga … overwhelmingly they voted yes in the referendum”.
Lingiari, the electorate covering Alice Springs and remote areas of the Northern Territory, voted 58% against the voice to 42% in favour but the yes vote won in all but one remote mobile voting team.
Results for Remote Mobile Teams in the NT electorate of Lingiari. Number columns are first % Yes, then % No and total votes. #auspol #referendum2023 pic.twitter.com/zanMhFbLWA
— Antony Green - elections (@AntonyGreenElec) October 15, 2023
Asked before those results had been returned if Indigenous Australians from remote booths that Price represents as a Northern Territory senator would vote yes or no, Price told reporters in Brisbane “it will be interesting to see”.
“One thing we do know is the way in which Indigenous people in remote communities are exploited for the purpose of somebody else’s agenda,” she said.
“I think we probably need to look at the way the AEC, the [Northern Territory Electoral Commission], conduct themselves when it comes to remote polling at elections, at referendums.
“I think we should take away those who come in with their how-to-votes, unions that come in and overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities.
“There is a lot that goes on in remote communities that the rest of Australia doesn’t get to see. If we had cameras in those remote communities, at those polling booths, Australia would see what goes on in within those communities. There’s a lot of manipulation.”
Asked if an allegation was being made against the AEC, Mundine intervened, shouting, “you know what, people are committing suicides in these communities”.
“People are being raped and beaten and this is the questions you come up with!?
“We had a vote tonight that said Australians want to get things done,” he said.
Mundine urged the media to “stop talking about all this other nonsense and start talking about kids … who are as young as nine and 10 who commit suicide in their communities and those kids who get raped”.
Remote voter services include a scheduled visit from a mobile voting team of three or four AEC polling officials travelling to a community with as little as 20 enrolled voters.
An AEC spokesperson rejected suggestions of interference at remote polling, telling Guardian Australia “the ability to campaign at any polling place, including in remote communities, was of course the same for everyone”.
“We were pleased to have delivered the largest remote voting offering ever with a 25% increase in the number of votes taken in remote communities,” the spokesperson said. “This was off the back of record rate of enrolment overall, as well as for Indigenous Australians.”
The spokesperson said that “most people across Australia had a smooth, swift experience” but apologised “for the inconvenience some people experienced” with queues at some metropolitan booths.
“Whenever you have a system where people can essentially choose where and when they vote there will be queues.”
In response to complaints of no booths in the Melbourne CBD, the spokesperson said the AEC had “wanted venues in Melbourne CBD” and liaised with 30 premises but “none were available that were suitable”.
“There were 15 venues within a 4km radius of the Docklands booth and we worked to redirect people where we could and we put on additional issuing points.”
The Coalition parties have frequently complained about the conduct of third-party campaign groups on election day, including unions and GetUp, calling for restrictions on distributing material including how-to-vote cards.
In the last term of parliament the Liberal-chaired joint standing committee on electoral matters called for a new offence of “electoral violence” to prohibit violence, obscene or discriminatory abuse, property damage and stalking candidates or their supporters to intimidate them or make them feel unsafe.
In a dissenting report, Labor members said this conduct was already prohibited by state laws and a new offence risked a “chilling effect on legitimate political communication”.
