Doc. 216: URL = http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/rebut.htm
08 September 2001
The Hon. Jim McGinty, MLA,
Attorney-General, and Minister for Electoral Affairs,
30th Floor, Allendale Square,
77 St George's Ter,
Perth WA 6000.
Dear Mr McGinty,
Re: ELECTORAL FRAUD
Your 4 September letter regarding Electoral Fraud included this phrase: "There has been no evidence of widespread fraud in electoral enrolment ..." This and other phrases seem to have been written as if electoral fraud allegations had not claimed the cabinet seat of a colleague, the Queensland Deputy Premier, Mr Jim Elder, (reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 22 November 2000).
2. A few days earlier, on 14 November, the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee (LCARC) of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland had tabled its interim report. It was interim because Parliament had set a deadline, and the Shepherdson Inquiry was still going on.
3. The LCARC included in its recommendations:
4. You see, in August 2000 a former Labor Party candidate had been gaoled for nine months for electoral roll cheating. In The Australian Financial Review of August 14, 2000, it was reported that the activities that led to the "jailing of the former candidate for the north Queensland seat of Thuringowa, Karen Ehrmann, could have a bearing on the outcome of the poll." The Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), Queensland, set up the Shepherdson Inquiry, which evidently made extensive investigations, and was widely reported when, in April this year, it brought down its report.3. The committee further recommends that in addition to the actions suggested by the committee above, the Premier and the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for The Arts, in conjunction with the Electoral Commission Queensland, initiate immediate discussions with the Australian Electoral Commission to explore options to escalate fraud audit procedures prior to the next State election.
5. In the first three paragraphs of the executive summary of the CJC's report these words appear:
6. The Federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM), Chapter 2 of report, June 2001, Inquiry into the integrity of the electoral roll, "Managing the Roll", quoted her in this format:... Karen Lynn Ehrmann, alleged publicly that widespread electoral fraud in internal Party ballots was being carried out in Queensland by Party members.
At the time of making this claim, Ehrmann had just pleaded guilty to 47 charges relating to the forgery and uttering of electoral enrolment forms. At her sentencing in the Townsville District Court, in August 2000, she described herself as merely a 'bit player' in a 'well-known scheme' carried out by the Australian Workers Union faction within the ALP to commit electoral fraud in Queensland.
Ehrmann's conviction followed those of fellow Party members Andrew James Kehoe and Shane John Foster for similar conduct.
7. And there is the aspect (in a partial answer to your unsubstantiated and impossible claim that many electors would be disenfranchised) of UNAUTHORISED people being enrolled -- and once having been enrolled, of their votes going in to the counting piles, never to be separated from those of valid votes. As the Inquiry has it:2.17 Other witnesses to the committee's inquiry alleged that enrolment fraud was far more extensive. Ms Karen Ehrmann, in her evidence before the committee on 14 December 2001, indicated:
... Everyone was doing it. It was encouraged and condoned by people at the highest level in the Queensland parliament and the Labor Party ...
8. Remember, this is ONE officer, who had worked for a branch of the public service that has been decrying critics and denying that fraud is a major problem ever since the 1983 federal legislative changes started to open up the loopholes! In fact, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has been exposed as having a problem with its attitude to risk assessment. There is no State Electoral Commission that I am aware of that is willing to concede that well-planned fraud is difficult or impossible to detect, and that they have no way under present laws of preventing fraudulent votes being counted at referenda and elections.2.18 Mr Robert Patching stated that, as Divisional Returning Officer (DRO) for Rankin, in the late 1980s he uncovered 218 non-citizens who had attempted to enrol.
9. Reading your letter reminded me of the television interview that former WA Premier Mr Brian Burke gave, returning from his ambassadorship to Ireland and the Holy See. He looked into the camera and convincingly said words to the effect that he had done nothing illegal or wrong.
10. But, there had been a gigantic $2 billion or more fraud, and an attack on WA's employees, businesses, and the civil service, the effects of which persist. Some of the leading players of those days are still in influential positions, and are being promoted, thanks to Labor's last election win. We may refer to yesterday's The West Australian, "Labor's recycling scheme finds new jobs for old boys", page 17. (I will aver that about half the Carmen Lawrence Cabinet might have been reasonably honest, judging by the fact that they told the truth at the later inquiry into the Easton petition affair. But, their honesty levels hadn't stopped WA Inc. Of course, some diehards still say that there was no "WA Inc", and that the Easton inquiry was a witch-hunt!)
11. I'm not one-sided -- I remember that a WA Liberal ex-Premier also failed to convince a court of his innocence. In fact, the Liberal branch-stacking, non-existent "members", lockouts of real members, fake proxy papers, and other pre-selection cheating were at a high level during those years.
12. With an electoral reform campaigner like Mr Ed Dermer in Parliament, it is disappointing that you seem to have denied there is enough of a problem to upset governments and/or to return governments that do not enjoy the confidence of a majority of the electors.
13. You see, the fraud doesn't have to be "widespread" (I can see the professional touch there, in the inclusion of that word!). It only needs a handful of votes in a handful of seats at some elections. Remember? The then Premier of WA said before the 1989 State election that a handful of votes in a handful of seats would probably decide the issue -- and it did. And the electoral fraud was blatant. I actually saw one case, in the few hours I took part in the check-up. One vote for Greypower was missing out of a sealed envelope -- but there was an extra Labor vote in there, to make the total tally! In fact, in excess of 10,000 man-hours were spent investigating, and in one seat alone, "Altogether 539 questionable votes were uncovered. At least another 478 were disenfranchised due to the ineffectiveness of the Electoral Office." The cheating was reported to the authorities, but was sidestepped by the fairly corrupt Liberal leaders of that time. (It is not known if the Nationals knew about it -- they seemingly didn't know that WA Inc was occurring for most of its existence.) And, laws were changed later to prevent a future thorough research as had been carried out after that election!
14. The Sydney Morning Herald editorial of October 3, 1998, has put the position this way:
15. Of course, diehards can say that's all "newspaper talk" -- but they can't fool all of the people all of the time. The official records of the alleged cheating that affected Mr Jim Elder, the then Deputy Premier of the Queensland Labor Government, and led to the resignation from Parliament of Mr Michael Kaiser over a year ago, ought to have reached the Labor Party's WA Branch by now. So, although the Special Minister of State, Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz, might be suspected of having party bias, I think that, on balance, he is right in objecting to your lack of co-operation in adopting a national consensus in this matter.The frustrating aspect for people concerned about the integrity of our voting system is that the anecdotal evidence of mistakes and rorts is invariably confirmed when these matters are investigated. A Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by the Labor MP Michael Lee, inquiring into the conduct of the 1987 election, for instance, confirmed that about 325 votes in each seat were incorrectly ruled informal and not counted. Mr Lee argued that this level of mistakes was 'dangerous' and that there was no way of knowing which way the votes would have gone. After the 1993 election, the Independent MP, Ted Mack wrote to the then Minister for Administrative Services, Senator Bob McMullan, detailing 'certain concerns' about the Electoral Commission's conduct in his electorate. One was the disappearance of 260 votes cast for Mr Mack.
16. Why did I contradict, in paragraph 7, your paragraph 3's claim that "It is anticipated that many electors will be disenfranchised at the close of roll for an election under the proposed system ..." You see, every eligible person, in most Electoral Acts, has a duty to enrol, or correct their address or other details, within, generally, three weeks. They don't have to wait until an election is called -- in fact, it is ILLEGAL to delay enrolling
17. The Coalition Parties had been "in denial" about the electoral fraud for years and years, but by now some of the thickest "hayseeds" in the Coalition in WA are aware it is an important problem. Come on, by denying the well-organised electoral frauds you are acting like the Liberals who pretend that the Queensland Liberal branches weren't cheating on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) recently! The electoral cheating has affected parliamentary outcomes, and will continue to do so until more genuine reformers somehow get past the cheating at pre-selection ballots and at the elections, and take more seats in parliaments. (By the way, $500,000 reward for two murders is too much.)
Yours faithfully,
John Massam
Para 10: The West Australian, September 7 2001, page 17, Anne Burns, "Labor's recycling scheme finds new jobs for old boys"2.27 The committee believes that the AEC has to be careful that it is not too confident. A more circumspect attitude is more appropriate in the light of the Shepherdson Inquiry and this inquiry's work. The AEC's attitude leads the committee to question the adequacy of the AEC's assessment of the risks in relation to the integrity of the electoral roll.
The original terms of reference were further extended when information was received that a number of electoral enrolments for the 1986 plebiscite in South Brisbane were false. Two of the enrolments related to two Members of the Legislative Assembly - Michael Hans Kaiser and Paul Thomas Lucas. The former resigned as the Member for Woodridge shortly afterwards; the latter is still an MLA.
David Barbagallo, who at the time of the plebiscite was Secretary of the East Brisbane branch of the ALP, admitted to the Inquiry that he organised a scheme to enrol people in the South Brisbane electorate for the purposes of the 1986 plebiscite. He admitted that, as part of his scheme, some people (associated with the AWU faction) with their knowledge and consent, were falsely enrolled at an address in the South Brisbane electorate.
Enclosure: The Age, Melbourne, November 27 2000, Greg Roberts, "ALP 'ignored' warnings on electoral fraud", http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001127/A39256-2000Nov26.html included the following:2.32 Section 101 of the Electoral Act makes it compulsory for every person who is qualified to enrol as an elector to apply for enrolment within 21 days after becoming qualified to enrol. The penalty for failing to enrol is a fine of up to $50. Section 101 of the Electoral Act provides that any elector who changes his or her address must change his or her enrolment details.
The federal ALP ignored warnings in the early 1990s about electoral rorting, former Queensland Labor president Ian McLean said yesterday.
...
Two federal MPs and a senior figure in the party organisation have been mentioned in evidence but their names have been suppressed.
...
Mr McLean said a 1993 report by a lawyer, the late Hamish Linacre, detailing evidence of electoral rorting, was given to the state ALP's disputes tribunal, but it was ignored.
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