Ms Caitríona Ingoldsby:

The options paper that we published with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government last year addresses some of these issues and the practical and legal questions relating to extending the vote to our citizens abroad. That options paper currently identifies postal voting as the preferred option for a number of reasons that the Secretary General has outlined. E-voting is a possible future solution but according to colleagues from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, it is not universally accepted as secure. Postal voting is the preferred solution at present. Because our citizens are so displaced and our representational footprint is small compared with the number of citizens we have abroad with, for example, Perth being a five-hour flight from Canberra or Sydney, would we expect our citizens in Perth to take a five-hour flight to cast a vote when casting one by postal vote might be easier?