AEC ticks off Peter Dutton over ‘factually incorrect’ complaint

Given the AEC’s fierce commitment to non-partisanship and staying above the political fray, the flat out rejection of Dutton’s request in less than 24 hours is notable.

The commission enjoys a strong reputation internationally for being politically non-partisan, especially compared to commissions in countries like the United States, which are partisan and electoral malfeasance such as gerrymandering is a regular occurrence.

The AEC noted in the 1999 referendum, just 0.86 per cent of votes cast were informal and of those informal votes, only a few related to people using either a tick or a cross rather than writing Yes or No on their ballot paper.

Despite Dutton’s insistence that an X should denote a No vote, in his 2022 election candidate nomination form Dutton repeatedly placed an X in a box to indicate a Yes to questions about his citizenship and the country of his parents’ birth, for example.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said on Friday the AEC was a trusted entity in this country and the way that they are conducting this referendum is absolutely no different to previous national votes.

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“The important thing is that Australians know their way around ballot papers. And this is a referendum that requires Australian people to write either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in the space provided. And my encouragement is to write ‘Yes’,” she said.

“Quite frankly, the AEC should be congratulated for having more people, Aboriginal people on the roll than ever before in our history, and working closely and collaboratively with people that want to see this as a fair and equitable referendum.”

More to come

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.