Roach v Electoral Commissioner
| Roach v Electoral Commissioner | |
|---|---|
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| Court | High Court of Australia |
| Full case name | Vickie Lee Roach v Electoral Commissioner & Commonwealth of Australia |
| Decided | 30 August 2007 (order) 26 September 2007 (reasons) |
| Citation(s) | [2007] HCA 43, (2007) CLR 162 |
| Transcript(s) |
28 Mar [2007] HCATrans 122 2 May [2007] HCATrans 187 5 Jun [2007] HCATrans 273 12 Jun [2007] HCATrans 275 13 Jun [2007] HCATrans 276 30 Aug [2007] HCATrans 467 |
| Case opinions | |
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(4:2) 2006 legislation disenfranchising all prisoners was invalid, the 3 year criterion in the 2004 legislation was valid. (per Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Kirby & Crennan JJ) |
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| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Kirby, Hayne, Heydon & Crennan JJ |
Roach v Electoral Commissioner is a High Court of Australia case, decided in 2007, dealing with the validity of Commonwealth legislation that prevented prisoners from voting. The Court held that the 2006 amendments were inconsistent with the system of representative democracy established by the Constitution. Voting in elections lies at the heart of that system of representative government, and disenfranchisement of a group of adult citizens without a substantial reason would not be consistent with it. The three-year criterion in the 2004 amendments was held to be valid as it sufficiently distinguished between serious lawlessness and less serious but still reprehensible conduct.
Vicki Lee Roach was a Victorian woman of Aboriginal descent, who was serving a six year term of imprisonment at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park. In 2002, Roach and her then partner robbed a milk bar. She was driving the getaway car, being pursued by police, when she struck a car stopped at a traffic light, causing extensive injuries to the 21-year-old driver. Roach had alcohol, tranquilisers, morphine, and a cannabis-related substance in her blood and was subsequently convicted on five counts for offences of burglary, theft, conduct endangering persons, and negligently causing serious injury. On each count, she received a sentence of between 12 months and 3 years, with a total effective sentence of six years and a non parole period of 4 years.
Roach was represented by Ron Merkel QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia. The arguments included that indigenous Australians were disproportionately disqualified from voting, as indigenous Australians are only 2.5% of the population, but constitute more than a quarter of the national prison population.
Chief Justice Murray Gleeson held that the right to vote was constitutionally protected. Universal suffrage was long established; anything less was not a choice by the people as required by ss7 and 24 of the Constitution.
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