00:00Four days on from the election and the Nationals leader is fed up.
00:06This is an absolute shit show.
00:08This actually is terrible and it is a threat to our democracy.
00:12With the Electoral Commission focused on counting votes, he's called on the state's corruption
00:16watchdog to look into the Commission's decision to outsource election staffing to a private
00:21company.
00:22We've seen staff who have been under-resourced or under-trained and polling booths where
00:27people are being turned away because there simply wasn't enough ballot papers at the
00:30polling booth.
00:32The company, Purcell Kelly, referred all questions to the Electoral Commission, but all the WAEC
00:37would say is the company was chosen after a competitive and transparent tender process.
00:42But Mr Love says it's still ultimately responsible for problems faced on the day, including by
00:47Upper House Labor MP Kate Dowst, who says staff couldn't find her on the electoral roll.
00:52I actually pointed to the ballot paper and said, that's me, I'm on the ballot paper,
00:57therefore I must be enrolled, otherwise I couldn't be a candidate.
01:00Director at the Centre for Public Integrity Geoffrey Watson says outsourcing staffing
01:05was a bad idea.
01:06I mean there are some things which are sacrosanct, and the purity, the clear honesty and integrity
01:12of our elections, that's the cornerstone of our system.
01:16The Nationals leader also wants the CCC to look into donations made by Programmed, the
01:21parent company of Purcell Kelly, to WA Labor, totalling $67,000.
01:27He says it should ring alarm bells because the parent company of both Purcell Kelly and
01:31Programmed is based overseas.
01:33The law is not very effective if you have a completely owned subsidiary based in Australia
01:38which can donate on your behalf.
01:40It's a perennial problem with elections in Australia.
01:43The donors are giving money to governments from whom they can get financial benefits.
01:48We need to clamp down on that and stop it.
01:50WA Labor says it complies with the state's electoral laws and doesn't accept foreign
01:55donations.
01:57You ready to go?
01:59Excellent.
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