This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

The New South Wales Nationals and the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, have joined growing calls for the length of pre-poll voting before federal elections to be shortened.

In a submission to the inquiry examining the 2019 election, Fletcher warned the record number of Australians voting in pre-poll was eroding the “integrity and quality” of the electoral process.

In the 2019 election 4.8 million Australians voted before election day on 18 May – 31.6% of the electorate, up from 22% in 2016 – sparking concern from party organisations, which struggled to staff pre-poll centres with volunteers to distribute how-to-vote cards.

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The National party’s NSW branch submission to the joint standing committee on electoral matters claims that pre-poll should be cut from three weeks to two.

While voters should have “every possible opportunity to exercise their democratic right … the party strongly believes in ensuring voters have the opportunity to be fully informed prior to casting their ballot”, it said.

The NSW Nationals also complained that the Australian Electoral Commission provided election funding directly to the federal secretariat of the party, instead of the state parties which are “independent organisations” which choose to affiliate in a federated structure.

Fletcher’s submission noted that pre-poll was intended for those “physically unable” to attend a polling place on election day, not for the “greater convenience” of voters.

The record pre-poll result “made it more challenging for all parties to communicate their policies to voters in the lead-up to the election”, he said.

Fletcher said he was “particularly troubled” by the AEC’s “policy of encouraging and facilitating pre-poll” through a longer pre-poll period and more pre-poll centres.

“This is not an appropriate decision for unelected officials to make,” he said. “It is a decision which should only be made by the parliament.”

He also criticised it for appearing to celebrate the result with “publicity material noting with satisfaction that pre-poll numbers were at record levels”.

Fletcher said the AEC provided just two days’ notice that pre-poll would open on 29 April, creating “a significant logistical challenge” staffing early voting centres.

Fletcher suggested pre-poll should be cut from three weeks to one, should not be offered on Saturdays and suggested a reduction in the number of pre-poll centres.

LNP MP Julian Simmonds submitted that the three week pre-poll period was “overly burdensome and a significant imposition on both candidates and political volunteers”.

He called for the period to be cut to two weeks to save on the “enormous resources to sustain a presence across multiple pre-poll locations in an electorate”.

Simmonds also complained about third-party groups – such as Get Up, unions and the Australian Conservation Foundation – handing out how-to-vote cards which he said lead to “confusion amongst voters between legitimate candidates and those lobbying on behalf of issues”.

Independent MP Bob Katter also called for pre-poll to be cut to one week. Katter backed former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce’s call to break states up into sub-regions and mandate two senators represent each – a change which would provide the Nationals with a larger Senate bloc at the expense of all the other major parties which win more votes in capital cities.

Political analyst Kevin Bonham noted informal voting rates above 10% in the western Sydney seats of Blaxland, Fowler, Watson, McMahon, Werriwa, Lindsay and a surge in informal voting in Mallee, a Victorian seat contested by 13 candidates.

He said the rate of informal voting was a “national disgrace” and called for new savings provisions so ballots that miss a number are not disregarded.

Labor has urged the committee to investigate whether the digital behemoths are having a negative impact on Australian democracy after Facebook refused to take down fake news about the “death tax” circulating during the May election campaign.

Civil society groups have called for the introduction of spending caps, citing Clive Palmer’s record $60m expenditure on the election.