I would like to ask the Senator who advocated the amendment made yesterday and those Senators who voted for it, to relent in the matter. A good many Senators thought that the amendment, if it was not a positive improvement to the Bill, at any rate could do very little harm, inasmuch as it seemed, on the face of it, to be simply of a permissive character. I am not quite sure—I have not had an opportunity of getting advice upon it—that it is simply a permissive amendment. I am not sure that the words "the Minister may make regulations" would not be read and interpreted as equivalent to definite instructions to make such regulations, and the more so, as in portion of the amendment you have the insertion of the words lower down, "the Minister may, if he thinks fit."
If Senators have a copy of the amendment before them they will see what I mean. The amendment starts with: "To insert a new section:—The Minister may make rules under the Act prescribing the manner," and so on. Then in paragraph 3 of the amendment you have the formula: "The Minister may, if he thinks fit, by rules made pursuant to this section, prescribe" certain things. It is at least possible, I think, that the amendment, as a whole, would put on the Minister, who in this case is the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, the duty of making rules on this subject. The Minister has no desire to make rules. He has not the faintest idea of what kind of rules could be made to meet the particular kind of difficulties that were suggested here yesterday. His view, and the view of his Department, is that the provisions dealing with the illiterate voter contained in the Electoral Act of 1923 are adequate, or, if not adequate, are not capable of any improvement calculated to meet any more fully that problem of the illiterate voter. I quite admit that the illiterate voter, coming in to make his selection from a Panel of 75 names, constitutes a problem, and I would be prepared to admit it would constitute a problem that might mean obstruction in the booth, and a difficulty on the part of other voters from registering their votes. But the Electoral Act of 1923 envisages that possibility and made provision against it. It provides that for four hours before the closing of the booth, the presiding officer may refuse to give his assistance to the illiterate voters if, in his opinion, it constitutes any substantial obstruction to the proper flow of business in the booth and the giving of proper facilities to other electors to record their wishes. If I am right—and speaking purely as a layman and without any opportunity of getting advice in the meantime—that this amendment might put a duty on the Minister to make rules, and if the considered view of the Minister and his Department is that he does not consider rules necessary, and that he would be completely at a loss to know what rules to make to meet the point of view that was expressed here yesterday, then I suggest to the Senator that he would perhaps reconsider his attitude and agree to the deletion of this amendment.
