2016-08-18
Senator Scott Ludlam
We all thought Election Day was the deadline, after which we could all pause and take a breath. But with the result hanging in the balance, and another month before we would all learn if we got to keep Rachel, almost a full month of scrutineering was needed, making sure every effort was made to secure every last vote.
Our team spent hours and hours staring at screens. Was it a number one or just a smudge? Are there two x marks above the line, or was it the voter crossing one out? The new Senate voting system made predictions impossible. The end of group voting tickets meant voters decided for themselves where their votes went, and few voters followed the how-to-vote cards – which when you think about it, is deeply great. The team had anecdotes, but nobody had data until the button was pushed on Monday August 1st. The result came our way, and the feeling was one of huge relief that Rachel will be returning to the Senate where she belongs.
There was not much time to rest, as the furore around the census began to build. Then came the debacle of census day itself. In late March we urged the Treasurer to roll back the changes to the census that had been snuck through in the weeks before Christmas. The most concerning change is the move from an individual once-every-five-years snapshot to lifelong tracking of every citizen. Former Australian Bureau of Statistics head Bill McLennan called it “the most significant invasion of privacy ever perpetrated" by the ABS.
This proposal was rejected on privacy grounds previously, and rather than allow the new proposal to be scrutinised by civil society groups and independent experts, the ABS ploughed ahead into a mess of their own making. When Parliament finally reconvenes, we look forward to helping the process back onto the rails. Then it's full steam ahead into an unpredictable term of Government where the stakes couldnt be higher. Thanks for being a part of it.
Photo: Scott with candidates From Scott's Facebook page