Disenfranchisement is us!

Well, folks, it's election time in Australia, and has been for some weeks now.
I've been following it as best I can from the other side of the world, which is actually pretty easy these days, what with video, audio, and print media all online.
I even watched the announcement live!

Which reminds me... in his election announcement the PM said that the writs would be issued on Wednesday the 17th of October and the Electoral Roll would close on the 22nd. The interesting thing here is that those were the OLD rules. Under the current legislation (introduced by the current govt. in a bid to stop young people from voting for the other team) the Roll closes at 8pm on the day the writs are issued.
Sure enough, when Wednesday 17/10 rolled around, the headline news item was: Electoral Roll closes tonight!

So what happened here? Did the PM get it Wrong?
Did not one of his mindas point out this enormous mistake in his speech?
But more importantly, why did no-one in the media pick up on it? or even on the other side of the house??
It's not like this legislation has had widespread, or even bi-partisan support!

Oh well. I suppose the PM got it wrong and hushed it up and the AEC stuck to the legislation.
So all those nearly 18 year olds and recent migrants, who neglected to sign on before the 17th will have to find another way to fulfill their democratic responsibility.

Maybe they can kick him in the pants on one of his morning walks.