What it does
The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 (Cth) is a federal amending statute that made a series of changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) and the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 (Cth). The Act received Royal Assent on 22 June 2006. Most Schedule 1 items commenced on that date; items 17 to 19 commenced on 21 November 2006.
The Act's most historically significant provision was item 15 of Schedule 1, which substituted a new section 93(8AA) into the Electoral Act. The new provision disenfranchised any person serving a sentence of imprisonment, regardless of the length of that sentence. This replaced the previous rule, which only disenfranchised prisoners serving sentences of three years or longer. Within one year of its commencement, the substituted section 93(8AA) was declared constitutionally invalid by the High Court in Roach v Electoral Commissioner [2007] HCA 43 [109].
Beyond prisoner disenfranchisement, the Act made numerous administrative changes: restructuring Divisional Returning Officer provisions (items 1 and 6), introducing provisional enrolment for citizenship applicants (item 7, inserting section 99B), reforming roll close dates to the third working day after the date of the writ (item 52), and introducing new requirements for political expenditure returns and internet advertising disclosures (Schedule 1, items on sections 314AEB, 314AEC, and 328A).