The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is to recycle a left-over materials from the March Federal election to aid Indigenous health across the country.
Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers said that running a manual event so big in scale as a Federal election provided a responsibility to ensure resources that could be re-used did not go to waste.
Mr Rogers said the AEC was able to provide first-aid kits from the more than 7,000 polling premises, plus a high volume of different stationery equipment, to people who could put it to use to promote the health and wellbeing of people who often lacked those resources.
“This material is still mostly brand new, and it will either not last until the next full Federal election or is cheaper to purchase again than store,” Mr Rogers said.
He said that as the AEC’s transport provider for the 2019 Federal election, the Toll Group has provided delivery of the donated materials free of charge.
Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) is among the recipients of donated first-aid kits.
Chief Executive of IAHA, Donna Murray said supporting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce was critical to ensuring quality, safe and responsive care was provided across health and related sectors such as disability.
“The first-aid kits and other resources will make a big difference in supporting the work we do with schools and communities to promote health, and help build the much-needed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce,” Ms Murray said.
Mr Rogers said the stationery materials donated include pens, pencils, highlighters, blu-tac and bulldog clips.
He said the AEC also liaises with State and Territory electoral management bodies on the potential for re-use of election materials from other Australian electoral events.
