Wednesday, 6 November 2024
ICC Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

I thank Matthew^[1] for this morning’s Welcome to Country. The invitation to participate in living traditions grounded in the spirit of coming together in respect and which traces its origins to the very beginning of human habitation of this continent, is a unique and inspiring tradition.

As Governor, I greet you in the language of the Gadigal the traditional owners of this land: Bujari gamarua Diyn, Babana Gamarada - hello and welcome. Matthew has introduced us to his people, I only add that the word Gadigal comprises two words: the Gadi are the grass trees endemic to the Sydney area and Gal meaning people, hence the Gadigal are the People of the Grasstree, which is still found in the area as it sways in the sea breezes.

It is an honour to address you as Vice Patron of this, the 67^th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, and I thank NSW Parliament and the NSW Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) for hosting this year’s Conference.

The representatives at this conference are drawn from 127 legislatures from across the Commonwealth of Nations. Together, you reflect the diverse histories, cultures, and outlooks that the Commonwealth family of nations embodies, as well its unity of commitment to democracy, the rule of law and to human rights.  

As the President of Legislative Council has mentioned, this year marks the 200^th anniversary of the establishment of the Legislative Council of NSW. It is also the bicentenary of the Supreme Court of NSW. Both institutions were established under the New South Wales Act passed by British Parliament in 1823.^[2]

Although the first Legislative Council was neither an elected body nor did it have the power of introducing legislation, that power remaining at that time in the Governor, the Council was the forerunner to, and original springboard from which, the Parliament of NSW, has evolved. 

An essential provision of the 1823 Act, which in its essential terms remains in our Constitution Act (NSW) 1902, was the specification that the Legislature’s power was to “make laws for the welfare, peace, and good government of NSW”.^[3]

A much later provision, indeed one barely 15 years old, is the acknowledgement and honouring of the Aboriginal people as the State's first people and nations.^[4] That provision continues:

(2) Parliament, on behalf of the people of New South Wales, recognises that Aboriginal people, as the traditional custodians and occupants of the land in New South Wales --

(a) have a spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship with their traditional lands and waters, and

(b) have made and continue to make a unique and lasting contribution to the identity of the State.

This section, introduced in 2010, is an exemplar of, and signifies, the importance of an evolving democratic process, albeit in an historical context was a very late recognition of the continuing connection of First Nations peoples living in the geographical area we now call New South Wales.

The history of the Commonwealth of Nations is almost entirely a shared history. However, with nations over time charting their own course, and with the welcoming of new members, the Commonwealth, like Parliaments, has continued to adapt to contexts particular to time, place, and people. This is as it should be.

Nor is this new to you as members of an Association committed to the principles of parliamentary democracy and good governance, you know that the calibration of the machinery through which parliaments function, in representing for whom they legislate, is a vital and ongoing process. If it were not so, you would not be here to learn from each other, to share your expertise and experiences, and to work to find means by which engagement with, trust in, and resilience of, our parliamentary democracies is best maintained.

I mentioned the bicentenary of the Legislative Council and the Supreme Court of our state. This year is also, the 75^th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Nations. There is another significant anniversary this year which slipped by virtually unnoticed: the centenary of the passage through the Federal Parliament of the Commonwealth Electoral Act (1924) which introduced compulsory voting in Australia.^[5]

It is reasonable to ask why it this anniversary, which is considered a fundamental part of our democracy, has slipped under the radar. The answer could simply be because for many Australians, compulsory voting is simply what we do. And we get fined if we don’t.

We are one of 23 countries of the world’s 166 electoral democracies in which voting is compulsory^[6]. In less than half of those countries is compulsory voting enforced^[7] including the Commonwealth countries Australia, as I have mentioned, Singapore, Fiji, Cyprus, and Nauru.^[8]

Since its introduction, Australian voter turnout has never fallen below 90%, including those who had a legitimate reason for not voting on the day, as well as those who simply did not, or forgot to, vote.^[9] In the United States, and even in the United Kingdom, the home of the Westminster system, voter turnout is often low – indeed one could say this is invariably so. In the last UK election, voter turnout was at a low of 59.7%.^[10]  

The turnout varied across constituencies, but taken at the national level, 40% of the population did not vote, representing the biggest block compared to the turnout for the individual political parties. Rather than being a freedom to vote, to not vote is a form of disenfranchisement, with which comes, disengagement from the democratic process.

In that regard, I am sure you have all watched on your television screens over the last couple of weeks the strong invocation by both presidential candidates in the US election to their supporters to vote. The message is obvious. To have the Government you want, you must get out and vote for it. True representation, after all, is the raison d’être of parliamentarianism.

In Australia, election days have become synonymous with community barbeques giving rise to the reference to the ‘democracy sausage,’ the title of a podcast and also part of the title of a recent book entitled From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage in which the author, political historian Professor Judith Brett, traces the evolution of democracy in Australia.

Within that evolution are a number of significant Australian innovations. The ‘secret ballot’, originally termed the ‘Australian ballot’,^[11] was pioneered in the Australian Colonies in the 1850s by the introduction of a ballot paper and separate compartmentalised polling booths.^[12] 

There were also early enfranchisement provisions which commenced with propertied male only voting rights from the 1840s onwards, moving towards full male enfranchisement in 1856 and gradually universal enfranchisement with South Australian women being amongst the first in the world to gain the right not only to vote, but also to stand for election in 1894.^[13] 

The history of Indigenous enfranchisement is more complicated and detailed. Putting the matter in very general times, whilst male indigenous voting rights existed from 1856, knowledge of those voting rights was sporadic at best amongst Indigenous peoples.  Full voting rights federally for all Indigenous Australians was not achieved until 1963. The point is that you don’t have rights if you don’t know they exist, or don’t know how to exercise them, or have the wherewithal to exercise them.

These secret ballot and universal franchise are ubiquitous features of democracies across the world. Not so with the next Australian electoral innovation – preferential voting, introduced in 1918^[14], which seeks to ensure elected representatives have the support of a majority of their electorate rather than a first past the post system.   However. such a system only works if a significant majority of the electorate actually votes.

There are many legal, philosophical and practical questions which underpin these matters, but as I said on Sunday evening to a smaller group amongst you, democracy in our Commonwealth of Nations is a given. It is the systems of democracy which must remain fit for purpose for the societies they serve so as to ensure that democratic institutions remain relevant and trusted. Otherwise, democracy won’t be relevant, and it won’t be trusted.

Functioning systems of democracy require both custodians and leaders. It is why Professor Judith Brett, whom I have already mentioned, referred to “bureaucrats and parliamentarians [as the] angels and heroes “of democracy. As she said, referring to Australia and its history of democratic processes:  

The political stability we have enjoyed for more than a century is evidence of the care they took [and I add continue to take] to create democratic, flexible electoral practices.^[15] 

As parliamentarians and bureaucrats, you might have expected an occasional reference to yourselves as heroes, particularly in times of disaster, as we have seen here in New South Wales over recent years, but never, I suspect, as angels. However, Professor Brett’s point is really contained in her reference to political stability. We thank each and every one of you for the part that you play in that. 

You are here of course not only as members of your parliamentary institutions, but as members of Commonwealth Parliamentary Institutions. Kings Charles III, your Patron said this recently

The Commonwealth spans six continents and, as a group, has the size and influence to play a significant role on the global stage […] It has the diversity to understand the world’s problems, and the sheer brain power and resolve to formulate practical solutions.^[16]

I wish you well for your deliberations during this, the 67^th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. To use that phrase from our National Anthem: With courage let us all combine to make our Commonwealth, and therefore all peoples, better.

Let me finish with this, a message from King Charles III, received yesterday.

Please convey my warmest thanks to all the members and guests of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for their loyal greeting, sent on the occasion of their 67^th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference which is being held in Sydney this week.

As your Patron, I much appreciate your thoughtfulness in writing as you did.

In return, I send my warmest good wishes to all those who are present for a memorable and successful program of events

Charles R.

[1] Mr Matthew Doyle, will be delivering a Welcome to Country following the welcome remarks of Hon Courtney Houssos MLC, Parliament of NSW.

[2] New South Wales Act 1823 (UK), 4 Geo. IV C.96, available here

[3] Section 5, Constitution Act 1902 (NSW), available here

[4] Section 2, Constitution Act 1902 (NSW), available here

[5] Assented to by the Governor-General on 10 October 1924, available here

[6] Judith Brett, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting, Text Publishing, 2019, p.1 (ebook); ‘Appendix G – Countries with Compulsory Voting’, Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Business website, available here; Paul Strangio, ‘Compulsory Voting in Australia is 100 Years Old. We Should Celebrate How Special it Makes Our Democracy’, The Conversation online, 22 July 2024, available here

[7] Brett, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage., op. cit., p.1 (ebook).

[8] ‘Appendix G – Countries with Compulsory Voting’, op. cit.

[9] Strangio ‘Compulsory Voting in Australia is 100 Years Old’, op. cit.

[10] ‘2024 General Election: Turnout’, House of Commons Library website, 5 September 2024, available here

[11] Strangio ‘Compulsory Voting in Australia is 100 Years Old’, op. cit.; Brett, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, op. cit., p.8 (ebook)  

[12] Brett, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, op. cit., pp.22-25 (ebook)

[13] Through the South Australian Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) 1894 Act: ‘Defining Moments: Women’s Suffrage’, National Museum of Australia website, available here.

[14] “The Commonwealth Electoral Act was comprehensively rewritten in 1918 (the last such rewrite until 1983), and the new Act among other things introduced alternative (‘preferential’) voting for the [Australian Federal] House of Representatives”: ‘A Short History of Australian Electoral Reform’, Australian Electoral Commission website, available here. In NSW, preferential voting was introduced for the Legislative Assembly in 1928, and for the Legislative Council when it became directly elected by the people following the reforms introduced by the Wran government from 1977 onwards and implemented progressively over the next three elections commencing with the first popular election for the Council in 1978: ‘The History of the Council’, Parliament of New South Wales website, available here

[15] Brett, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, op. cit., p10 (ebook)

[16] ‘The King’s Speech to Parliament House, Canberra’, 21 October 2024, available here