Electoral Legislation Amendment (Candidate Eligibility) Bill 2021 [2021] AUSStaCSBSD 255 (1 December 2021)

• Electoral Legislation Amendment (Candidate Eligibility) Bill 2021
• Privacy39

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Electoral Legislation Amendment (Candidate Eligibility) Bill 2021

Purpose	This bill seeks to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, to simplify the Qualification Checklist and to clarify when a response to a question is mandatory.
Sponsor	Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters
Introduced	House of Representatives on 25 November 2021

Privacy^[39]

1.68 The bill seeks to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act) to clarify when a response to a question in the Qualification Checklist, which must be completed by all candidates seeking to nominate for a federal election, is mandatory or optional. The Qualification Checklist was introduced into the Electoral Act by the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Modernisation and Other Measures) Act 2019 (the 2019 Act). The Qualification Checklist includes questions relating not only to the applicant seeking nomination, but also to the citizenship and birth places of the applicant's parents, grandparents (including biological or adoptive parents or grandparents) and former or current spouses or similar partners.^[40]

1.69 The committee commented on the bill that became the 2019 Act in Scrutiny Digest 15 of 2018 and Scrutiny Digest 1 of 2019. The committee raised scrutiny concerns in relation to that bill, noting that publishing the personal information of third parties on a public website without their consent has the potential to unduly trespass on personal rights and liberties, in particular the right to privacy. The committee continues to have these scrutiny concerns in relation to the amendments made by this bill, noting that the bill makes it mandatory for a candidate to provide this information.

1.70 The committee reiterates its previous scrutiny concerns and leaves to the Senate as a whole the appropriateness of requiring the publication on a public website of a potentially substantial amount of third-party personal information without the relevant person's consent.

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[39] Schedule 1, item 13, proposed Form DB. The committee draws senators’ attention to this provision pursuant to Senate Standing Order 24(1)(a)(i).

[40] Schedule 1, item 13.