A joint roll arrangement exists between the State and the Commonwealth for the purposes of preparing, updating and revising rolls of electors. Authorisation to collect enrolment information is contained in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 No.27 and the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912 No 41.

Access to the NSW electoral roll

Under NSW electoral law, organisations and people with access to electoral information are:

• registered political parties
• Members of the Parliament of New South Wales
• groups and candidates participating in the electoral process
• state agencies such as NSW Police, Sheriff’s Office, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Office of State Revenue, Department of Fair Trading and NSW Crime Commission
• certain health screening programs – within National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines.

Electoral rolls are not available for sale and it is illegal to copy an electoral roll. Recent changes to NSW electoral laws place a heavy penalty on any organisation or person who has used electoral enrolment information for a non-approved purpose.

The principles outlined in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 No 133 are observed by us in managing the roll, as documented in the 'NSWEC Policy and Guidelines for Disclosure of Electoral Enrolment Information'.

NSWEC Policy and Guidelines for Disclosure of Electoral Enrolment Information
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NSWEC Policy and Guidelines for Disclosure of Electoral Enrolment Information
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Public access to the roll

The current NSW electoral roll with the name, address and gender of each elector is available for public inspection at our office. The non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees for local government elections purposes are made available for public inspection during office hours at the relevant council office.