WORDS FROM WARD

Dear Bugle reader, Parliament sat last week, and I didn’t waste a minute.

I gave notice of a bill to amend NSW electoral law to require voters to show some form of ID when they go to vote.

The bill will also require the Electoral Commission to use electronic elector markoff once someone has been issued with ballot papers.

My bill comes amidst revolutions that thousands of people at the 2019 State Election voted twice!

I take any form of fraud very seriously and requiring voters to show some form of identification combined with electronic mark-off will provide a layer of protection for a legitimate vote being outweighed by anyone committing electoral fraud.

This approach has previously been recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters but both major parties have ignored these recommendations.

My bill will mean that both sides will have to nail their colours to the mast on measures designed to safeguard our democracy. I look forward to seeing their approach.

I also concluded debate on a private members bill to provide for greater accountability measures for Ministers on handling government money and government grants. My bill proposed, among other things, that an unethical awarding of taxpay- er funds by way of a grant, should give rise to a serious breach of the Ministerial Code.

Interestingly, Labor supported provisions of my bill when they were in opposition. But now in Government, it seems they conveniently take a different view.

Whilst the vote was close due to some crossbench support, the bill was defeated with Labor voting against the bill.

I also used Question Time last week to ask the Premier about how the NSW Government is cleaning up expenditure of private sector consultancies used by NSW Government agencies.

Whilst you may have been following the Canberra controversy involving the ‘Big Four’ consultancies, much of the current debate was kicked off due to an inquiry into a little known NSW entity called TAHE (Transport Asset Holding Entity).

As a result of the inquiry into TAHE, the Legislative Council Public Accountability Committee proposed some very sensible recommendations to better manage expenditure on government consultancies and reduce possible conflicts of interest.

My question to the Premier was very simple; what are you doing to implement these recommendations?

The Premier took my question on notice and offered to provide a written reply to the House in due course.

Suffice to say, I take the expenditure of taxpayer funds very seriously and I look forward to reading the Premier’s reply.

Gareth Ward