- 4 hours ago
Annabel Crabb's Civic Duty - Season 1 Episode 1 -
Fairness
Fairness
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Inventions, but in real life, the creator of Alice in Wonderland was a highly eccentric mathematician called Charles Dodgson, who taught at Christchurch College in Oxford.
00:11In his spare time, he wrote novels and dreamed up an elaborate series of inventions, but mainly, Carol's remarkable brain pulsed with the idea of fairness.
00:22He designed a fairer system for the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Ignored. A fairer way of charging for sherry in the Christchurch common room. Drunkenly ignored. And he thought Britain's first-past-the-post voting system was desperately unfair.
00:41Off with his head!
00:43Voters only marked one box on the ballot, meaning that a candidate could win a seat with nowhere near 50% support.
00:51Will you all just give me just a little bit of a fair go, eh?
00:54Dodgson devised a system of preferential voting, where voters would rank candidates from first to least preferred, rather than just choosing one.
01:03This way, he argued, they had a better chance of electing someone they didn't actively hate.
01:09He was so enthused by the idea that he printed a pamphlet at his own expense and tried to whip up some interest.
01:17The verdict? Ignored.
01:19I haven't understood anything you've said.
01:23Dodgson died in 1898.
01:27What he never knew was that 20 years after his death, there was one place where the radical idea of preferential voting caught on.
01:36One place that still uses it to this very day.
01:41Oddly enough, it's the place where Alice feared she might end up, if she went too far down the rabbit hole.
01:48So where the bloody hell am I?
01:50Australia.
01:51The only nation on Earth to use full preferential voting from coast to coast.
01:58It's not Dodgson's exact model, but we agree with his reasonings.
02:03We use it because we reckon it's fairer.
02:07Neverfall.
02:10Because we've fallen against free.
02:16Who capitalize on your job's以上's work.
02:20I think it's fairer.
02:23Joanne Laasley.
02:23Please remember nemmas.
02:27Whoıy!
02:29Who high do?
02:29You know that you've been killed.
02:30You know what you think you've had to go to this very long time time.
02:30How is it going to struggle?
02:30We try and go back to your case.
02:32You know what you're trying to translate in our way for a whole lot of Katy.
02:32As Australians, we tend to take our voting system for granted, filling out every box on the ballot paper, the snow drift of how to vote cards as we rock up to vote on a Saturday, the sausage, of course, the fine, should you neglect to show up at all, the beige omnipresence of the Australian Electoral Commission, there to make sure that the process works exactly the same way no matter where you vote.
03:02But none of this is normal. No other country on earth does things the way we do. Shaped over more than a century by visionaries, opportunists, scoundrels and the great Australian people ourselves, democracy down under is a curious creation indeed.
03:23What do you think are the most remarkable elements of the Australian Electoral System?
03:28So what have we got? We've got compulsory voting, preferential voting.
03:32One of the very first countries to have a permanent electoral administrative body in the Australian Electoral Commission.
03:38The secret ballot.
03:38We have a secret ballot in compulsory voting.
03:41Which really makes our democracy robust.
03:44It stuns people when you say voting in Australia is compulsory.
03:47They are absolutely shocked and horrified.
03:49We have universal suffrage.
03:51The invention of the Australian ballot, the segmented polling booth, the design of the ballot paper with the little squares.
03:58That's a pretty good mix.
04:00There are some quirky bits that people don't quite understand.
04:03Being able to buy a sausage at your polling booth.
04:05Well, we have preferential voting.
04:07It's not very well understood.
04:09Oh my God.
04:10Explaining the preferential voting system is the hardest thing in the world, particularly when you're trying to do it in layman's terms.
04:16What are the long-term effects of our having an independent electoral commission?
04:22One of the reasons why Australians continue to trust at a really, really basic level their democracy is that the thing is set up neutrally, independently.
04:33There's a sense that the rules of the game are fair.
04:36It's one of the best things about this country and we never talk about it.
04:39Here is an address to the nation by the Prime Minister.
04:43Here's another unusual thing about the Australian system.
04:47As you know, I've been to see the Governor-General this morning.
04:49We have elections roughly every three years, but the exact date is at the exclusive whim of the Prime Minister.
04:56And today I seek a mandate from the Australian people to move Australia forward.
05:03Cool if you're the Prime Minister.
05:05Less so if you're Electoral Commissioner Geoff Pope, who faces a mammoth task.
05:11Plan the nation's most fiendishly complex single-day event without the benefit of what most would agree is a fairly relevant detail.
05:20The date.
05:22Oh my God, this is a giant shed, Geoff.
05:24How many of these sheds do you have?
05:26We have just over 60 of these, but this is actually medium size.
05:29Oh, is it?
05:30Yeah, there's one in Sydney that actually is at least twice the size of this.
05:34It's huge.
05:35So this is all of the boxes and the chairs and the ballot papers and the pencils and the...
05:43No ballot papers, Annabelle.
05:46Because they're under lock and key elsewhere?
05:47Well, because we haven't started the process.
05:49I feel like I just gave you a heart attack.
05:50A little bit of a heart attack.
05:51There are no ballot papers here.
05:53This is all of the materials to run a polling place, but for the ballot papers.
06:00Geoff, we're all looking at election dates, right?
06:02And watching the Prime Minister's face really, really carefully.
06:05I assume you're doing that too.
06:06Absolutely.
06:07I get no other indicator than the Prime Minister's face and his announcement.
06:10Is your job a bit like planning a wedding when nobody's actually proposed to you yet?
06:15Yeah.
06:15At a venue that you don't know where it's going to be, you don't know really who the guests
06:20are going to be, you don't know how many are actually going to turn up.
06:22So yeah, it's probably not a bad analogy, actually.
06:24But you know you're going to need five million pencils?
06:26I think we've got 250,000 pencils to service the election all around the country.
06:31Are you sure that's enough pencils, Geoff?
06:33We reuse them.
06:34And at the end of this, we actually look at what materials we can also donate.
06:37Is it annoying to have to book all these places and make all the calculations when you
06:43don't actually know when the election's going to be?
06:46Oh look, the hardest part is, you know, 7,000 polling places all around the country, 580
06:51early voting centres all around the country.
06:54Probably also working with DFAT to get all the materials, like what you see here, out to
06:59111 Australian embassies and posts and missions all around the world.
07:05And then of course, sourcing and employing 100,000 fantastic people that want to come
07:10and work with us.
07:11Are you a logistics person by temperament?
07:14Look, I'm pretty damn good at planning.
07:17You know, that comes from my operational policing background.
07:19I've planned things to the nth degree.
07:22Because you were a cop for a long time, weren't you?
07:23Yeah, just over 20 odd years.
07:25Do you run into many baddies in this job?
07:27You come across some from time to time.
07:30You know, the threats of foreign interference are really growing threats to every election
07:36in Western democracies right around the world.
07:39It's weird, isn't it, that when your full job is to not be noticeable, right?
07:43That's right.
07:44You want to disappear and you want democracy to be functioning without anyone even realising
07:49that you've got 60 sheds full of boxes and pencils and magnifying glasses and stuff
07:55going everywhere.
07:56Yeah, I mean, despite this pink vest, I'm Mr. Calico.
07:59Right.
08:00I was really interfering with your beige vibe, I've got to say.
08:03Mr. Beige, Mr. Boring is what I aspire to.
08:06Doesn't sound particularly inspirational, although as an organisation, we aim to be boring and
08:11we aim to be not in the headlights.
08:12You need to have a word to your best guy.
08:15Correct.
08:15Or gal.
08:18Jeff, I don't want to freak you out by reminding you that this is your first federal election
08:22as the Electoral Commissioner, right?
08:23Yes.
08:24Everything seems to be going well?
08:25Yeah, so far, you know, but we haven't had contact with all of Australia just yet, so that's
08:31when it's going to be a little bit challenging.
08:32But look, I'm loving it.
08:34I love the organisation.
08:35I love the people that work for us.
08:37And I've got to say, I actually find polling day a bit emotional.
08:41You know, you just get so proud of what the organisation has delivered, but also Australia's
08:48democracy is just so special.
08:50And when you look at what's happening right around the world, I think it's becoming even
08:53more special and more precious and more treasured.
08:56The 2025 poll, a logistician's dream of carefully managed stationary and foldable booths, is very
09:06different from the first parliamentary elections ever staged in Australia, which kicked off in
09:11New South Wales to elect city and regional representatives on June the 15th, 1843.
09:19British rules were applied.
09:21In order to vote, you had to be a man, and a man with property at that.
09:25The great fear in the 19th century was that if the mob had the vote, then you'd get tyranny.
09:32Weirdly, there's this inverted idea of democracy that only educated people and only people with
09:39property would respect the rule of law.
09:42Voting took place in public meeting spots, which in colonial Australia often meant the pub.
09:50Well, I think voting in colonial times is pretty wild.
09:53You think a democracy sausage is cause for celebration.
09:57But if you were a voter in 1843, oh my God, voting day was just wild.
10:03And it was run in the same way that elections were run in Britain at the time.
10:08That is, there were public events.
10:10There were marching bands.
10:11There were parades.
10:13There was a lot of alcohol.
10:14Both for the people who could vote, but also it was a spectator sport.
10:18So there were people cheering and booing and drinking.
10:22And then the voter would walk up and have to say his name and the person who he was voting for.
10:29Which means that everybody could hear who you were going to vote for.
10:31It was like democracy circus here in Australia.
10:36They would just be getting people completely pissed.
10:38And it was actually one of the reasons that people opposed women's suffrage.
10:44Because they said, you can't expect delicate women to come out on the street to exercise their right to vote when these are the scenes that they're going to be confronted with.
10:55Adding to the cocktail of boozy confusion in Sydney's election was the fact that most of the candidates were called William.
11:02William Charles Wentworth was the love child of a highway robber and a clothes thief, who'd made good in the colonies as an explorer and newspaper owner.
11:17His running mate, William Bland, was a convicted murderer, deported from England for killing someone in a duel.
11:25Bland also features in what's believed to be Australia's first photograph.
11:30Hello, sir.
11:30No photographs survive of the third William, William Hussler.
11:35All we have is his campaign material, which consists exclusively of terrible poetry that he paid to have printed in the newspaper.
11:44For your rights, the most trifling, you'll find me a tussler once you've elected yours, W Hussler.
11:51Voting day quickly spun out of control as William Wentworth pulled ahead in the count.
11:57They kept a running tally, and so the candidates could say, oh, well, not enough people are voting for me.
12:03I better give them more drink.
12:04And there ended up being a lot of fights.
12:06A bunch of drunken sailors ran to a whaling vessel and got a harpoon.
12:11The sailors were subdued by police, but across town, a man called Daniel Finney was bludgeoned to death.
12:19And at the end of that time, Governor George Gipps wrote back to the Colonial Office in London and said the election had gone off very well.
12:27William Wentworth was elected, as was William Bland, who also designed Australia's first airship, and gave his name to the Bland Shire in the New South Wales Riverina,
12:40which otherwise could never have inked its historic 2013 sister city arrangement with dull in Scotland and boring in Oregon.
12:49Colonial Australian voters didn't mind electing felons, but they really did not love the idea of their bosses, landlords, or even their friends watching how they voted.
13:03Of course, the thing that marks out true democracies is the secret vote, giving people the right to vote in private and not have someone else dictate how they vote.
13:12In quick succession, in the mid-1850s, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia introduced a new form of voting, a paper ballot, filled out in private.
13:25Early models listed candidates' names, with voters ruling out the ones they didn't like.
13:31And somebody in Victoria comes up with the idea of the segmented polling booth, so that a number of men can be all voting at once.
13:40Australia's electoral innovations might have stopped there, had a young man called William Boothby not been dragged from London to live in Adelaide.
13:52The reason? William's father, Benjamin Boothby, had been appointed as a judge in Adelaide by the Colonial Office,
13:59and he brought along his wife and 12 children, of whom William was the eldest.
14:05William, as luck would have it, nursed a passion for electoral design.
14:09He got the job of running the first elections in South Australia, and he has to do it by scratch.
14:16They have to get an electoral roll. They then have to run them, and so who's going to actually set up the electoral roll?
14:23Local government is very underdeveloped. There's not much of a police force.
14:27Many of the able-bodied men are over in Victoria hoping to find gold.
14:32And so he decides that the only solution is to have paid public servants, building the electoral roll and running the elections.
14:41After barely two years in the colonies, William Boothby, the accidental immigrant, had pioneered the idea of an independent, permanent electoral authority.
14:51He ran every election in South Australia for nearly 50 years.
14:57And he had a bright idea for improving the secret ballot.
15:01Instead of having to cross out the names and to just have little squares next to the ballot, you just could tick the one you wanted.
15:08And that became known as the Australian ballot, and it spread throughout the world.
15:12And it's one of Australia's great contributions to global elections.
15:17Oh, Boothby was also very interested in olives and pioneered the idea of growing them in prisons for their oil.
15:23Very sensible. He wrote a book about it.
15:25We do take it for granted, I think, in Australia, the ability to just say the most radical thing,
15:32which is you want to throw out the person who has power at the moment.
15:36And you don't have to set fire to the place to do it.
15:39You just put a one next to somebody else, and they get kicked out.
15:43We've had Parliament, Commonwealth Parliament, going for over 120 years.
15:48They haven't changed any of those elements that he originally put in place all those years ago.
15:54So is Booth being a bit of a rock star for electoral nerds?
15:57Well, he's certainly one of mine, that's for sure.
15:59I think his legacy is just so enduring, and still such a core feature of how we function today.
16:05The Australian concept of the secret ballot spread to America and then to Britain.
16:15But they still don't vote like Aussies do.
16:17Which is to say, triennially, on a Saturday, pencil and paper, bang down a snag, and you're good to go.
16:23Civic duty done.
16:25Thank you for the sausage.
16:27Democracy is different everywhere.
16:29Even our closest relatives can't agree on a day.
16:32In America, it's Tuesdays, using everything from a paper ballot to electronic voting machines.
16:39In Britain, it's Thursdays, and you're only allowed to vote in your designated local polling station.
16:45And no, you absolutely will not get a sausage.
16:48India, the world's biggest democracy, staged its last election over 44 days.
16:54With 15 million election workers travelling by road, boat and elephant to record close to a billion citizens' choices.
17:04Between 744 political parties, represented on ballot papers by symbols including brooms and ceiling fans.
17:12These are the kinds of innovation that a democracy demands when a quarter of its participants don't read and write.
17:18In Gambia, people vote for a candidate by dropping a marble in the relevant barrel.
17:25In Estonia, you're allowed to vote online, and has been for 20 years.
17:29What is a democracy?
17:31It's a trickier question than it sounds.
17:34You've got to watch out for non-democracies in drag, like Russia,
17:38where complicated and inscrutable voting machinery somehow manages to produce a majority for the status quo every time.
17:48Or North Korea, where voting is compulsory, turnout is close to 100%, and the ballot paper features a single name.
17:58Australia is unusual in having a single electoral authority for every election that's conducted.
18:03The rules are the same, whichever polling booth you step into.
18:07The ballot papers look exactly the same, and it's all a handwritten ballot.
18:11And you know that the person who will be counting that vote is independent,
18:17and is doing it as a civic service.
18:20Everyone's voice matters.
18:22How everyone votes matters.
18:23And in having a level of confidence across the Australian body politic, from the far left to the far right,
18:31that, and everyone in between, that this is a fair electoral system, run by fair-minded electoral officials,
18:38that is worth its weight in gold.
18:40You are not going to worry about, and you are not going to be encouraged to think,
18:47that this election or that election is corrupt.
18:50The contest is the same everywhere.
18:51If you look at the American election, there's a blizzard of different rules,
18:54from state to state, from county to county.
18:57And the rules are just so complex and so difficult.
19:02Case in point, the beautiful, baffling American city of Bristol,
19:07which sprawls across the border between Trump-voting Tennessee and Virginia,
19:12which in 2024 opted for the Democrats.
19:16The state line runs down the middle of the main street.
19:19Abortion is legal over here, but not over here.
19:24Possession of marijuana is a criminal offence on this side, but not if you cross the street.
19:30It's presidential election day, though, when things get particularly confusing.
19:35If you're voting on this side, you'll need photo ID, and you're welcome to bring your gun along.
19:40Over here, they're cool if you show up without ID, but the firearm, not allowed.
19:47In Tennessee, a ballot selfie could get you 30 days in jail.
19:51In Virginia, do your hair, snap away.
19:55Touchscreen voting.
19:57Paper and pencil.
19:58This is America, where the rules and regulations of voting depend entirely on which state you call home.
20:07So, Mark, we're in Virginia right now, yes?
20:12That's correct, yes.
20:14Bristol, Virginia.
20:15Mm-hmm.
20:15You are the mayor of Bristol, Tennessee, which is the other side of the street.
20:19Right across that yellow line right there, yes.
20:21Are you okay being on this side of the street?
20:23Are you going to be challenged?
20:25Absolutely not.
20:27We have a great relationship with our sister city, and we get along quite well.
20:32And Bristol, Virginia has its own mayor, and Bristol, Tennessee has its own mayor, which is you.
20:37That's right, yes.
20:37Same police force?
20:38No, we have two city councils, two police force, two fire departments, all of that sort of stuff.
20:44So, if I've been chased by your cops on that side of the street, can I just cross the street and lose them?
20:49No, they'll still get you.
20:51Will they?
20:51Yeah, we've worked all that out.
20:53I think in years past, you could have done that, but not anymore.
20:55Also, you seem to have more of the cool bars.
20:57Why is that?
20:58You know, it's just the thing about Tennesseans.
21:01I think we're known for producing the very best whiskey in the world, and so some of that's just part of how things have played out over the years.
21:10So, is it business on this side, party on that side?
21:13I think so.
21:14If you want to have fun, you come to Tennessee.
21:16Yeah, absolutely.
21:16Okay, all right.
21:17I feel unprepped.
21:18Should we move to the fun side of the street?
21:20Oh, absolutely.
21:21Yeah, I'd love to.
21:21Okay.
21:23When a presidential election happens, you're all voting.
21:34Right.
21:35Every state has its own voting rules and regulations.
21:38Right.
21:39It seems confusing to us as Australians because we just have the same rules everywhere.
21:43Yeah, it's all different.
21:44In fact, in the state of Tennessee, we have election commissions in each county, and those election commissions can determine whether or not they're going to do a paper ballot or if it's going to be electronic.
21:56And then some states have electoral officers who are themselves elected.
22:01Right, that's right.
22:02This seems unusual to me.
22:04The commissioner of elections is appointed.
22:06Right.
22:06But he's also appointed by, you know, a partisan state government.
22:09Yeah, that's right.
22:10So talk to me about districting.
22:14In Australia, we have an independent electoral authority.
22:16But in many states in the U.S., the state government will do the redistricting electoral boundaries.
22:25Yes.
22:25So tell me how you can manoeuvre that advantageously.
22:30You know, people do all kinds of things when it comes to those boundary lines and work some things to their own ends.
22:37So when I was on the county commission, everybody was a Republican.
22:40And so if they wanted to redistrict, that would have been a pretty easy thing.
22:44But is it the general rule in American politics that if you can get away with gerrymandering, then go for it?
22:52You know, rule number one is don't get caught.
22:55Rule number two is lie if you do.
22:56No, that's not right.
22:59Mark's joking about this, of course.
23:01The truth is, you don't even need to lie.
23:05The politically profitable art form known as gerrymandering, redrawing electoral boundaries to ensure your party wins, is perfectly legal in America.
23:15It is the process in which people draw lines so that the election is really being determined by those who draw the lines, not the voters who vote in the election.
23:25You end up with districts that look like this.
23:29The system here results in some of the most preposterously drawn districts you've ever seen in your life.
23:37Mark's Republican colleagues in Nashville recently managed a tactical triumph by splitting the city's black population into three and stuffing the bits into Republican-dominated districts.
23:51The result?
23:51The Democrat-leaning black vote is diluted and Nashville no longer sends a single Democrat to Congress.
23:58It's not just doodling.
24:03This stuff has an effect.
24:06America's lower house is huge, 435 seats, but they're so rigged that in 2024, only 17 of them changed hands.
24:16Three percent.
24:18Whereas in Australia, it's a fairer fight because our electoral boundary process is completely uncoloured by politics.
24:26Geoff, tell us how you beige it up.
24:29There's effectively a two-step process, so for me to truncate it, there's a redistribution committee that is formed, that is chaired by me as the Electoral Commissioner.
24:38We open up for public submissions, come up with a proposal about how to adjust the boundaries to equal representation we possibly can.
24:46We take comments and we come up with a final proposal about how we're going to try and change those boundaries.
24:52Then the second step is that proposal then goes to the Augmented Electoral Commission, chaired by a person who's appointed by the Chief Justice of the Federation.
25:02It's also got Australia's Chief Statistician.
25:05The three of us then do effectively the same process.
25:08Here's the proposal, open to submissions, consider everything that's in front of us, make the decision based on all of that as to what we feel is the best outcome.
25:15I think I lost consciousness while you were describing the full process. Is this the conspiracy that while we fall asleep when you explain it, you do something corrupt?
25:28It's all open and transparent.
25:30Why do you have to redraw boundaries?
25:33You know, we've got growth corridors in Australia where population is exploding and we've got to try and even that out. So we redistribute every seven years.
25:40In Western Sydney, another of Geoff's vast collection of sheds is being whipped into shape by AEC veteran Melanie.
25:51So what's with all these locked cages? I mean, what's in there?
25:55Oh, well, that's where we're going to put all our ballot papers when we get them.
25:58Yes, so very important and very important that we keep them secure.
26:02Right, authorised personnel only.
26:04Authorised personnel only. You could be wearing a particular vest and in a particular role.
26:08Pink vest get you in there? No.
26:10Really? What colour vest do you need to get in there?
26:13The red vests that are division returning officers and their materials stuff wear.
26:18Elite? Absolutely.
26:21Mel's being modest.
26:23In her 20 years at the AEC, she has worn the proud red vest of the DRO.
26:30The divisional returning officer, responsible for one of Australia's 150 federal electorates.
26:36These days, she's a trainer.
26:39She plays Yoda to an army of purple-vested Luke Skywalkers, the DROs of the future.
26:47Melanie, what sort of people want to come and work for the AEC at election time?
26:52People who come to work for us are often people who just love elections, whether it's the process
26:57or whether it's just the theatrics of it, but people who just love the fact that it's a contribution to democracy as well.
27:05So you're playing a civic role.
27:07So you've been a divisional returning officer, which is when you run a whole seat.
27:11Yes.
27:11Right?
27:12Is that nerve-wracking?
27:14Yes.
27:14When you're essentially the person who is responsible for delivering the election for that seat.
27:21Absolutely.
27:22My first time as a divisional returning officer was 2016.
27:26That was a hectic election.
27:27It was a hectic election.
27:29It was a three-way contest and that meant it was really hard to tell how it was going to fall.
27:35How relaxing.
27:36Very relaxing.
27:37How often do you cry when you're a DRO?
27:41In 2016, I cried every day for three weeks.
27:45Less in 2019.
27:47That was my objective in 2019.
27:51Cry less than 2016.
27:52Success.
27:55Wow, so looking out on this, does it make you feel inspired or panicky?
28:01Inspired to see everything looking as ready to go as it is.
28:05And I'd be nervous once.
28:07People get involved.
28:08People get involved.
28:09Yes, exactly.
28:11I think elections would run a lot more smoothly if there were no humans involved.
28:15It was just ballot papers?
28:16Yeah.
28:18Sometimes I think that, but in general, the people are amazing.
28:25Breaking news in Canberra.
28:26The exact date of the federal election is about to stop being the Prime Minister's special secret.
28:33My fellow Australians, this morning I visited the Governor-General and Her Excellency has accepted my advice that an election be held on Saturday, 3rd of May, 2025.
28:47The PM's next five weeks will be a modern pentathlon of chaos.
28:52The steps up a gear.
28:54Well, the election is...
28:55Well, this election is a choice about who can better manage our economy.
28:58We go beyond the talking points.
29:00In a bizarre election campaign controversy.
29:03They use every moment and chase every last vote.
29:10But Geoff is governed by legislation that was written in 1918.
29:14And the onset of an election obliges him to observe a series of stately duties.
29:20And we'll start with the RITs for the House of Representatives.
29:25A call upon the Governor-General for the issuing of the RITs.
29:29Basically, they're the paperwork for the election.
29:31Thank you very much.
29:33It's a pleasure.
29:34A physical printout of the electoral roll for every single seat.
29:39Now the Northern Territory, that one's Solomon.
29:41Each of which Geoff must certify with his own fair hand.
29:46All right.
29:47Well...
29:48APPLAUSE
29:49The names of nearly 18,100,000 people in front of us.
29:55And the roll is now ready for the election.
30:02But the AEC's process hits an intoxicating height of complexity and antiquity
30:08when it comes time to determine the order of candidate names on the ballot.
30:13It's done with scrupulous fairness, in public, on the same day, at high noon, in all 150 electorates.
30:23This one's the Western Sydney seat at Fowler.
30:26It's now 12 o'clock.
30:29We'll begin this declaration of nominations.
30:32According to the Electoral Act, electoral staff must...
30:35Section 213, Paragraph 1, Subclause 1
30:39compile a list of candidates and...
30:42Subclause 2
30:43Read it out.
30:44I'm now required to declare the names and nomination details of all candidates.
30:49Then, Subclause 3
30:50place numbered balls in a spherical container.
30:54I think there's something like two and a half pages in the Electoral Act
30:58are devoted to that act of rolling the cage.
31:01Subclause 4
31:02Rotate the container and permit any other person present
31:07who wishes to do so to rotate the container.
31:11I mean, you could just get a computer to randomise the order, couldn't you?
31:15But where would the fun be in that
31:17when you've got this fantastic artefact that is so transparent,
31:21people are invited to come up and rotate the...
31:23and they do and they love doing it.
31:25Under Subclause 4, I wish to rotate the container.
31:36Subclause 5
31:38Cause a person who is blindfolded
31:40and has been blindfolded since before the rotation of the container
31:45in accordance with Subclause 4...
31:47Ethan will perform this duty.
31:49...to take the balls
31:49or cause the balls to come out of the container one by one
31:54and, as each ball is taken or comes out,
31:58to pass it to another person
32:00who shall call out the number on the ball.
32:04If we had a randomised computer process,
32:11I can guarantee you
32:13there will be conspiracy theories and complaints
32:15about the code and about the assurance of the system.
32:22And the bias that sits in the code that sits behind that
32:25as to how a particular candidate
32:27came out on top of a particular ballot paper
32:29or how they might have come out on top
32:31twice in successive elections.
32:33It's about avoiding those traps and pitfalls.
32:36Vivek Singh Har.
32:38This completes the draw for candidate positions.
32:43Di Lee is the incumbent here
32:45in the Western Sydney seat of Fowler.
32:48Di is one of the swarm of independents
32:50who ambushed the major parties
32:52in safe seats around the country three years ago.
32:55And she's hoping to hold on.
32:57OK, Di, so you've drawn number three.
33:00Is that good?
33:00I just think it's great that Labor is below me.
33:03Right, OK.
33:04Not this time.
33:05Last time they were above me.
33:06Last time you were number four.
33:08So you're kind of creeping up with the ballot paper.
33:11Were you worried about,
33:12I mean, you have the same surname as the Labor candidate.
33:15Were you worried that you'd be next to each other?
33:18No, not really.
33:19I mean, at the end of the day,
33:21she has a Labor logo,
33:23whereas mine is independent.
33:25And I've been out in this community
33:27since, you know, I settled.
33:30And I think we have transformed this community
33:33to people knowing that they can vote for an independent
33:36and the world will not end.
33:44Standing by in the AEC's Canberra Nerve Centre,
33:48graphic designers now have just hours
33:50to lay out hundreds of unimpeachably fair ballot papers.
33:55Spacing, spelling, font size, placement.
33:59It all has to measure up.
34:02There's a lot of time pressures on us
34:04to get the ballot papers created
34:07and to the printers that very night.
34:09Why is it such a tight deadline?
34:11Because there's a lot of early voting that goes on.
34:13Right.
34:14And so we have one day to get everything right, 100%,
34:18and that just means that the moment we get the data,
34:21it's all systems go.
34:25And when the presses roll,
34:27they roll for days
34:28in a facility guarded 24-7.
34:33God, the smell of the ink in the air
34:35is kind of amazing, isn't it?
34:36It really gets up the nostrils and gives me goosebumps.
34:40It's incredibly exciting.
34:43Fear or excitement?
34:44Both.
34:45That's good.
34:47We're actually in the final stages
34:49of printing the ballot papers,
34:50printing 20 million ballot papers here.
34:53They started at midnight on Friday,
34:55and it's now Tuesday.
34:56We're nearly at the end.
34:57So they've been going 24-7.
34:59Nationally, we're doing about 55 million ballot papers.
35:03From Braddon in the ACT,
35:05to Ballarat,
35:06to Burnie,
35:07to the Barossa Valley,
35:08to Bunbury,
35:10to Barunga,
35:11to Bundaberg,
35:12to Byron Bay,
35:13to Berlin,
35:14to Bogota,
35:14these ballot papers are servicing Australians.
35:18I hope there's no spelling errors in that lot.
35:21There won't be.
35:22There won't be.
35:23I can guarantee you.
35:25The amount of eyes and processes and assurance measures in place,
35:29there won't be.
35:30You big nerds.
35:31We love it.
35:32We love it.
35:44This is a cool machine.
35:45Yeah, so it's getting batched.
35:47Batching into 100.
35:48Yeah.
35:49100 into a box,
35:50probably a box of 10,000.
35:52Much quicker than doing it by hand.
35:54And you have to keep track of every single one of them, right?
35:57Yeah, absolutely.
35:58Because it's bad if a box goes missing somewhere, right?
36:01It's not bad.
36:02Like, it's horrendous.
36:05Okay.
36:06So they're batched,
36:08and each batch is absolutely tracked.
36:10So the security measures from here,
36:12in the transport process,
36:14from the printer,
36:16through to our transport provider,
36:18through to our account centres,
36:20they are all tracked.
36:22It's a massive accounting exercise of balancing numbers printed,
36:25numbers out,
36:27numbers in.
36:28The ballot paper is absolutely sacrosanct.
36:30Like, you know, we treat it as if it's a blank check.
36:35Every eligible voter in Australia
36:37is entitled to one of these blank checks.
36:40In 2025, an eligible voter means an adult citizen,
36:45which seems fair.
36:46But for the first half of our Federation's life,
36:49the definition did not extend
36:51to the continent's first inhabitants.
36:54The system, our democratic system,
36:56has excluded Aboriginal people for so long.
36:59And I think that's really critical,
37:00because Australia really prides itself
37:02on its Electoral Commission,
37:05on our fairness in voting.
37:08But that's not how it's played out.
37:11You know, looking back and joining the dots
37:13in Australian history,
37:14it really,
37:14it's really remarkable how many times
37:18there's been one truculent,
37:21passionate individual
37:23who has stymied a particular move,
37:28or sometimes facilitated a particular move,
37:30that has had these long-standing ramifications
37:34in our democratic history.
37:38When the first-ever leader of the Senate,
37:41Richard O'Connor,
37:42jovially introduced the Barton government's
37:44franchise bill to the Upper House in 1902,
37:47its terms were radically simple.
37:50It was an extraordinarily broad
37:53and generous standard of franchise.
37:56Effectively, no-one was excluded from it
37:58unless you were under the age of 21.
38:00If you were an adult,
38:02a British citizen,
38:03and you lived in Australia,
38:04you could vote.
38:05Had the legislation stayed that way,
38:07Australia would have become
38:09the most democratic country in the world.
38:11But it didn't stay that way.
38:15Complications began in the Senate
38:16when Alexander Matheson,
38:18a wealthy businessman
38:19who served as senator for Western Australia,
38:22declared it was an insult to white women
38:24that their upgrade to full voting status
38:27should be shared with Aboriginal women.
38:30He moved an amendment
38:31that prevented the enrolment of,
38:33quote,
38:34Aboriginal natives of Australia
38:36and those of the half-blood.
38:38And I was really fascinated to find
38:40that there were actually
38:41many members of that first parliament
38:45who were arguing in favour
38:47of Aboriginal Australians retaining the vote.
38:50Chief among them was Senate Leader O'Connor,
38:52who argued it would be a...
38:53A monstrous thing.
38:55An unheard-of piece of savagery.
38:57On our part,
38:58to stop Aboriginal people
38:59from voting in their own country,
39:02simply on the basis of their race.
39:05O'Connor makes quite a passionate speech.
39:07He says, you know,
39:08we've taken the land of these people
39:09and we're not even going to let them vote
39:11in their country.
39:12O'Connor stripped out the amendment,
39:15but Matheson struck back with fresh claims.
39:18Western Australia, he told the Chamber,
39:19was full of impressionable Aboriginal people
39:22who could easily be coerced by wealthy graziers
39:25to vote a certain way.
39:27He was worried that certain landowners
39:30would just gather up all of their blacks
39:34and truck them to the polling booth.
39:37The federal parliament will be swamped
39:40by Aboriginal votes.
39:41Matheson thundered.
39:43And it worked.
39:45Over days of debate,
39:46support for Matheson's amendment grew.
39:49O'Connor feared that if he continued to resist it,
39:52the entire bill might be lost.
39:54Reluctantly, politics being the art of the possible,
39:59O'Connor chose to give way.
40:01The Franchise Act that made Australian women
40:04the most fully enfranchised voters in the world
40:07also disenfranchised Indigenous people.
40:11And that is how the majority of Aboriginal people
40:14were deprived of the vote for six decades.
40:17A brief and ill-informed debate
40:20inflamed by the heated views
40:22of a determined individual.
40:24For the lifetime of our democracy,
40:27for almost half of that period,
40:28we've excluded Aboriginal people.
40:32I mean, that's not an insignificant thing.
40:35We were unable to contribute to debates
40:38about laws and policies
40:41that absolutely subjugated our people,
40:43whether they were land laws,
40:45whether they were child removal laws,
40:47whether they were stolen wages.
40:50It's certainly not something that we talk about a lot,
40:54but it's a fact.
40:55And that has had the most profound impact upon our people.
41:084,000 kilometres and five generations away
41:12from those bruising old debates,
41:15a remote voting team is executing the AEC's remit
41:19to collect the votes of Australians wherever they may be.
41:25This chopper is carrying just dozens of votes
41:28from a remote Arnhem Land community cut off by floods.
41:34They're continuing to Yirrkala,
41:37right on the tip of the Gove Peninsula
41:39in the marginal seat of Lingiari.
41:41It's a tiny township
41:44with an immense place in Australian history.
41:49We'll set up down at the back here.
41:52This old church was freshly built back in 1963
41:56when it witnessed the gathering of Yong'u leaders
42:00coming together
42:01to sign the historic Bach petitions.
42:08Today, the church is appalling place.
42:10We'll be doing for time for nine minutes.
42:16Duncan, thank you for taking a break
42:17from duties of democracy.
42:20What is it exactly that you do for the AEC?
42:23I'm not a full-time AEC employee.
42:25I'm one of the tens of thousands of Australians
42:28who put their hand up to participate
42:29to work for the AEC during these elections.
42:32This campaign, I've been lucky enough
42:33to be part of a very small team
42:35that's been going out to remote communities
42:37in Arnhem Land.
42:38And I put up my hands each election.
42:40I just love the process, love being here.
42:42What do you love about it?
42:44Oh, look, I just love getting out
42:46to the remote communities.
42:47I love seeing almost a carnival-y atmosphere
42:50when people come together to vote.
42:53Is there anything particularly special to you
42:55about conducting the pre-poll
42:58in this church, in this community?
43:00Oh, it's an incredible community
43:02of incredible history,
43:04history that's important for Australia as a nation.
43:09To come to this church
43:10and to be welcomed into this church
43:11to run the polling, it is so special.
43:14You get to tick a few superstars
43:15off the roll too, right?
43:16Oh, and this community is renowned
43:18for its leaders, for its community leaders.
43:21So you might have people like
43:23Yalmay Yunupingu or Widiana Marika
43:25coming in to vote
43:26and they are heroes in the Northern Territory
43:29and across Australia.
43:31We need people to put a number in every box.
43:35Number one, consecutive numbers.
43:36Number one, two, three.
43:39And you can come over
43:40and help them too in language.
43:42Yalmay Yunupingu
43:59Yalmay Yunupingu
43:59people find themselves existing
44:01in two systems of government.
44:03One that's been around for thousands of years
44:05plus a newer one
44:07that's only included them for a touch over 60
44:09and moves to a vastly different rhythm.
44:13How do you feel about voting in this system
44:15when you're also part of a much older system?
44:19Yeah.
44:20As a Yalmay person
44:21we have our own government system, you know.
44:25We have our own laws
44:26but it's sad that Australia
44:32don't recognise that.
44:34Yalmay Yunupingu
44:34our law doesn't change.
44:36It's never changed.
44:37It's always the same, you know.
44:41It's still the same today.
44:43But when it comes to
44:45the Ngabaget law
44:46or the Australian law
44:48you know
44:49it changes all the time.
44:54Is it unusual to be invited
44:56to join a democracy
44:5860 years after it started?
45:01We have what my uncle
45:05Galarui Yunupingu's
45:07younger brother
45:08Mandawi
45:09would remind us
45:12that we have
45:14double power
45:15because then we have to think
45:18both ways
45:19the Yulung way of thinking
45:22and the Balanda way of thinking
45:24and how
45:25do we put these together?
45:28How does the Yulungu system work?
45:31Not in three year cycles, right?
45:33No.
45:34It's every day almost.
45:38Almost every day.
45:40So the Labour Party?
45:41So me?
45:42I'm not sure if we're Labour's going.
45:43Yeah, here.
45:44You can look on the back.
45:45This is for Lisa Sievert.
45:47So if you want to vote for her
45:49you put number one
45:50down the bottom there.
45:51So the turnout
45:51in this electorate
45:52is lower than it is
45:53around the rest of Australia.
45:55Is that because
45:56of the logistical difficulties
45:58or what do you attribute it to?
46:00We've still got issues
46:01in some areas
46:02and we need to work on that
46:04Annabelle.
46:04I think more resources
46:06from the Australian
46:07Electoral Commission
46:08because it needs
46:10to be impartial.
46:11I think it's really important
46:13for Aboriginal people
46:14to feel part of
46:16this system.
46:17not excluded from it.
46:19This one?
46:20There's two options.
46:21If you're voting
46:21above the black line
46:22we put numbers 1 to 6
46:24in your choice order
46:25or we do numbers 1 to 12
46:27on the bottom.
46:31This is the Northern Territory
46:32so I think I'm actually
46:34contractually obliged
46:35to ask you
46:36if you've ever been
46:36threatened by a croc
46:37whilst conducting
46:38a remote voting.
46:39No, but I have
46:40a dingo's threatened
46:41the voting once
46:42and attacked other
46:43dogs that were
46:45members of the community.
46:46When was this?
46:46And this was
46:47in Central Australia.
46:48Tables were upended.
46:50Is it your job
46:51to deal with the dingo?
46:52A wad of ballot papers
46:53was thrown on the ground
46:54to scare the dingo off
46:55on that occasion
46:56which is, you know,
46:58not what you do
46:59in terms of best practice
47:00in dealing with ballot papers
47:02but every ballot paper
47:04was accounted for.
47:04Oh, goodness.
47:05Wow, did the dingo respond
47:08to this?
47:08The dingo took off
47:09and tables were
47:11re-stood up
47:12and the voting continued.
47:13Lots of stories like that
47:15from the remote teams
47:15across the Northern Territory
47:16and Northern Australia.
47:17So when you've flown out
47:24all the way
47:24to a remote community
47:25and you're working there
47:26all day
47:26and you come home
47:27with a dozen votes,
47:29tell me why
47:29that's worth it.
47:31Oh, look,
47:31I think it's still
47:32really important
47:33because the electorates
47:34and the outcomes
47:36are getting very,
47:36very marginal.
47:37There's not many
47:38safe seats left anymore
47:39in the Northern Territory
47:40so every vote counts.
47:42Well, there's no such thing
47:43as a safe seat
47:43anymore anywhere,
47:44is there?
47:45It's becoming that way.
47:46Yeah.
47:47It's the era
47:48of disruption.
47:49Welcome to Pebble Beach.
47:51This is the West Wing
47:52of the White House.
47:53The influencer invasion.
47:54It feels quite elitist.
47:56As though influencers
47:57aren't citizens
47:58of this country.
47:59We live in a democracy
48:00and influencers
48:01have become players
48:03in that political game.
48:06Shattering the conventions
48:07of the past.
48:08You could just go down
48:09to the Prime Minister's office
48:10and say,
48:11I've got this story
48:12that's going to kill you.
48:13What do you say about it?
48:15Next, on Civic Duty.
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