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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner Ian Logan Ethan, Good.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Morning, Ian, Good morning Cati.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Now Ian, I understand that yesterday was the last day
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: or the deadline. I guess you'd say for anybody to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: contest the results of the outcome of the Northern Territory
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: election held on August twenty two. How did it all go?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Is anybody contesting any seats?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I haven't been made aware that anything's been lodged with
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: the Quarter of Disputed Returns And my understanding is no, Katie, Well,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: is that normal?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Like, do we usually have a situation where where you know,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: people do want to contest some of those electorates.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Look, it's quite often in the most marginal seats people
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: may look at the option there. I don't know whether
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: people recall at the twenty sixteen election in Normal Boy
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: as it was known then, the margin was only eight
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: votes and it was actually the Electoral Commission that lodged
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: a petition to the Court of Disputed Returns, and that
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: related to whether the elected candidate met the nomination criteria.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: That actually didn't end up going to court because there
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: was insufficient evidence for that for the for the matter
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to be taken to the to the to the court.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So it sounds asiety is a fairly normal process to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: obviously for people to laudge those disputes if if they
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: feel as though they need to happen.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Look, Look, it's obviously it's part of the electoral process
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and the electoral commission. The Electoral Commission is a returning
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: officer for elections, and if people have any issues in
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: relation to the administration of the election or any other
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: issue that they may feel has impacted the result of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the election, the proper process is for the Court of
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: disputed return is to review the election and see whether
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: there's any merit in the claims made.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, So it's obvious that it is a fairly formal
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: sort of process, or it's a process that happens after
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: every election. I guess it's probably a process which is
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: followed nationwide by you know, whether you're talking about a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: federal election or or a northern territory one.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, our margins are incredibly tight, Katie. I
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: mean for Barkley to be five and for Blaine to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: be thirteen. I've been speaking to the other electoral commissioners
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: and they're saying that you know, any margin around fifty,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: noting that their seats are much larger, would almost automatically
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: go to the Court of Disputed returns. But let me
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: say it's not as though you know that the parties
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: certainly haven't considered their options. That there have been significant
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: data requests since the election, as they've been like reviewing
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: every aspect of the election and looking at possible, you know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: mistakes of flaws that potentially could have you know, for
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in the case of Berkley, only really had to impact
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: three votes.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite phenomenal, isn't it, Especially like you say,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: you know, inter state, if it's less than fifty, quite
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: often it does go through the Court of disputed returns.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised that we're not sort of seeing, you know,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: anything go that way following on from the territory election.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Nothing surprises me in territory politics, right, But look, you
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: know what I am pleased about is that, you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: there's been a lot of scrutiny happening after the election
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: as parties have looked at, you know, different aspects of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: what we've done in you know, particularly in relation to
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: postal voting that's been there have been quite quite a
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: number of issues in the media, and you know, I'm
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: very pleased that you know that they haven't been they
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: haven't been able to identify any flaws that we're given
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: grounds to take it to the Court of Disputed Returns.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And is there anything that you, as the electoral commissioner,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: have sort of taken a look at since the election
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and thought, okay, we might make some changes for next
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: time round.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Look, there certainly are. We're currently writing the election report
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: and that will that will be table in Parliament. After
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: every election, we look at our procedures, we look at
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: how the legislation and how the legislation operated and what
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: needs to be sort of modernized of what needs to
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: be changed. We're certainly looking at what other electoral commissions
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: are doing so that we keep tabs in relation to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: what the standard is in Australia.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And in terms of opening the polls early, the early voting,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: do you think that that should be something that I mean,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: is it something that was quite successful in your eyes?
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Look? Absolutely, I mean I think we had fifty six
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: percent of people vote early. It's very clear that Territorians
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: want to vote when it's convenient to them. You know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: it's very pleasing that there's no criteria now to early vote.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Anybody can early vote, and you know that certainly is
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the is the way in the future that you know
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: we're going to have, We're going to see more and
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: more Territorians early vote.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Well again, I thought, you know, I just think it's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to me to make it as easy
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as possible for people to vote. You know, we want
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: as many people as possible to be out voting.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think you can blame people for not
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: voting if it's difficult to vote, right, to make it
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: give amien for them. So, you know, we certainly tried
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to have as many early voting centers as we Canley
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: shopping center. People are there, there's a lot of walk
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: through traffic, so you know, just you know, vote when
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: it's convenient to you.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Now, in terms of the postal votes, you mentioned this
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a little while ago. Do you think that there could
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: be some things that we do differently when it comes
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to postal voting down the track.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Look, I think some of the issues in regard to
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: postal vote is now we certainly had discussions with Australia
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Post and the impact in regard to COVID that was
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: having in relation to their timetable that they've made it
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: very clear that there certainly are restrictions. We certainly came
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: out very early based on their advice, saying it was
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: going to be extremely difficult to service overseas elector because
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: you know, there's hardly any international flights and another number
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: of countries aren't accepting international mail. So you know, how
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: can this be improved? And you know, the obvious ways
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: to look at some kind of electronic voting option, but
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: that opens up a whole myriad of cybersecurity issues that
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: really need to be addressed.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess that's something that you know, realistically
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: would have to be happening Australia wide before we'd be
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: able to push through with it in the territory, wouldn't I.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: He looked absolutely, And like all the Electoral commissioners get
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: together about two or three times a year, and that's
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the push that we're sort of saying to in particularly
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the Commonwealth government, there's no point developing in our seven
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: different systems that have different levels of security. You know,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: let's just develop one system that can serve us all
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: elections and that can be to the highest standard of security.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: So that you know, we know that there's some robustness
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: in the whole process.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: But really, I mean, is that the way that we're
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: hitting that we do need to go to that online voting.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, I think there's a general trend towards
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: moving services online. I suppose we've been talking here in
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: relation to what's convenient, and I think for a lot
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: of people, the capacity to do it online is the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: most convenient way. I think in the territory it's a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: little bit different. You know, we've got a large segment
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: of the population who you know, unlikely to utilize those services.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So there's always going to be uh, you know, remote
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: polling and and we'll always have polling places in urban areas.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: But look, I think it's some time down the track.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I think people will be watching great interest in relation
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: to what happens with the census next year and what
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: traction how many people use online, and if there are
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: any further issues that they that they face. But it's
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: all this learning. So I think I can say here
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: at the Electoral Commission, when we run all the enterprise
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: ballots for the Northern Territory government and we do it
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: for the private sector as well, and they're conducted online.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be baby steps of
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: you know, moving into this, becoming comfortable in this space,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: ensuring that the public or have confidence in any system
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  Speaker 2: that we use, because that's the only way you can
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: use it, because if there's not public acceptance of the result,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: then you know, elections don't work.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, spot on, well Ian Logan Ethan the Northern Territory
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Electoral Commissioner. Always good to chat with you. Thanks so
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: much for your time today.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, thank you