The LNP has today introduced a Bill to restore optional preferential voting in Queensland – 30 years after it was recommended in the wake of the Fitzgerald Report.
The Palaszczuk Labor Government disgracefully scrapped optional preferential voting (OPV) in April 2016 without any community consultation and after giving Parliament just 18 minutes' notice.
"No Queenslander should have to vote for a candidate they do not support, but that is exactly what Labor forces them to do," LNP Leader Deb Frecklington said.
"Compulsory preferential voting takes power away from the people and gives it to politicians – which is why it was scrapped at every state election from 1992 to 2015.
"Labor trampled over the rights of Queensland voters and the reforms which followed the Fitzgerald Report when it brought back compulsory preferential voting.
"Annastacia Palaszczuk rigged the system because she knew she could never win a majority if voters had a real choice at the ballot box.
"It's time to restore our democracy and let voters decide who gets their vote – and who doesn't."
Shadow Attorney-General David Janetzki said his Voter's Choice Bill would restore the post-1992 voting system, which saw more than 60 per cent of voters regularly 'Vote 1' at state elections.
Mr Janetzki said the re-introduction of the CPV system saw the rate of informal voting more than double from 2.11% to 4.34% at the 2017 state election.
"Optional preferential voting was clearly the preferred choice of Queenslanders before Labor axed it for their own political advantage," Mr Janetzki said.
"The return of CPV has seen a massive increase in informal voting, with an extra 66,241 ballot papers discarded at the last election.
"Queenslanders deserve a fairer voting system when they go to the polls next year."
