The name of the transport contractor was not disclosed in the report.
The instructions regarding point to point metropolitan area transfers of ballot paper boxes were ambiguous and in any event, interpreted by some as not requiring consignment notes. Consignment notes identified during this inquiry rarely went to any level of detail such as the number of boxes in a consignment. Instead, the majority of consignment notes simply accounted for pallet loads and the number of pallets.
In remote areas the transport of ballot papers is via the staff's own vehicles where they can be stored and collected by colleagues to ensure that they get to the Divisional office for the second count. That part of the system is built on trust.
Quote the report. www.aec.gov.au/.../inquiry-into-the-2013-wa-senate-election.pdf? The most poignant indication that arrangements at the recount centre were not ideal was the account given by one of the AEC staff who stated that after the arrival of several pallet loads of boxes containing Senate ballots to the loading dock at Northbridge, this individual realised that there was no one in charge of physically receiving and despatching pallets. This person then appointed himself to be in charge of the Northbridge dock. A visit to the dock area during the recount process by one of the inquiry team clearly identified a breakdown in procedures where incoming pallets with boxes of ballots to be recounted were placed side by side with pallets of boxes that had been through the recount process. (See photos at Annexure 4) Further, despite the recount plan identifying the sequence in which Divisional ballot loads were to be delivered from the Welshpool warehouse to the Northbridge Recount Centre and back again, the sequence was not followed and confusion existed between the warehouse and the recount centre about the status and sequence of consignments. There were also lengthy periods of time where the Welshpool warehouse was left with its large roller door open to allow those working inside some fresh cooler air. The warehouse is located near Perth airport and is not covered by CCTV or alarms. Its isolation from the main AEC office in Perth gives rise to issues about the supervision of staff particularly if an accident were to occur while stacking and re-stacking large and heavy pallets of goods.
Compared to operations elsewhere, the packing and marking of boxes containing ballots from the Division of Pearce was well below standard. Instead of each box being properly labelled, hand written felt pen markings depicted the origin and type of contents of these boxes. This part of the process is clearly inadequate given that printed labels were available and were used by other DROs (See photos at Annexure 6). Some of the hand writing had been crossed out as the boxes were re-used after being: ¦¦ used to store the original ballot papers prior to use in the polling places ¦¦ repacked and used to return ballot papers after the count on Election Night ¦¦ unpacked and repacked again after the ‘fresh scrutiny’ in the days following the election There were also conflicting versions of events as to how material was stacked for transport at the loading dock for the Division of Pearce. Some persons who were interviewed were critical of the fact that the loading dock had mixed stacks of used ballots, fresh ballots and cardboard rubbish stacked for transport to a recycling centre at Tamala Park which is near the Welshpool warehouse. Placing refuse and ‘live’ ballots in proximity to each other is strongly advised against in the AEC’s guidelines. Mixing loads is also advised against. Another factor impacting the boxes of Pearce ballots was that following fresh scrutiny the Pearce boxes were moved to the Welshpool warehouse in three separate loads. Two loads were taken by the contract courier and one load was taken by the warehouse manager himself. Dividing a load in this way is contrary to all of the controls applied elsewhere to maintain some idea of the location of goods. Added to this confusion was the fact that the three loads were not on pallets. These boxes were individually transported. During the inquiry it became obvious that some of the metropolitan couriers who were used to transport electoral material only had ‘partial loads’ so mixed loads are more likely to have occurred than not.
