More than a quarter of eligible Indigenous Australians living in the Northern Territory remain unenrolled to vote, despite "intense" focus on growing the electoral roll.
That's according to Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) officials, who say 74.1 per cent of First Nations people living in the NT are enrolled, a seven per cent increase from just five years ago.
AEC commissioner Tom Rogers acknowledged engagement with the electoral system remained a problem among Indigenous communities and said it had to remain a focus of his organisation.
"However, it is important to know the AEC has had an intense focus on this issue for several years, and pleasingly, rates of Indigenous enrolment have increased year-on-year for the last six years," he said.
"In most cases, the estimated increase has significantly outstripped the rate of growth in the non-Indigenous role and significantly outstripped the growth of the eligible Indigenous population."
Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into the 2022 federal election, Mr Rogers outlined a number of initiatives his organisation had undertaken to engage with First Nations people.
They included longer voting hours at remote area mobile polling stations, more partnerships with Indigenous community organisations, using an Indigenous community organisation as a polling centre for the first time and working with the NT government to help enrol people.
"All of that has assisted us to grow the roll to levels never seen previously, so we're very proud of the work that's been done, and we continue to do it," Mr Rogers said.
Quizzed on what role the AEC should play in policing truth in advertising at elections, Mr Rogers said that remained a "vexed issue".
"We're pretty comfortable our role is to defend the electoral system, to defend and make citizens aware about the process of voting ... any involvement of any electoral administration body, runs counter to the principles of neutrality and non-partisanship," he said.
"The moment the commission or the commissioner makes a ruling about a fact that someone said, you're alienating a large proportion of the population because election time in particular it's a contest of ideas."
The AEC said 105,000 staff, nearly 60 million printed ballot papers, nearly 8500 voting locations and some 6480 litres of hand sanitiser were needed to allow for the 15.5 million votes of the election to be cast.
