Page 965 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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basis, and who, in my view, therefore do not have a legitimate reason to vote in an Assembly election. It is a matter that we should treat with some caution, even though I accept that everybody's sympathies are with the democratic rights of those itinerant electors.
Madam Speaker, in 1989 and 1992 itinerant electors were not eligible to vote in ACT elections.
Mr Humphries: They were in 1989, were they not?
MS FOLLETT: No.
Mr Humphries: They were not?
MS FOLLETT: No. In 1989 and 1992 itinerant electors were not eligible to vote. I offer that information for what members might wish to make of it. Members will be aware that, should Mr Humphries's amendment succeed, I have some consequential amendments for which I will seek support.
MR STEVENSON (5.40): There were good points raised by both Mr Humphries and Ms Follett. There is no doubt that there are many people who do not have a fixed place of abode. They may move from place to place - their particular job may take them here and there - but they certainly should have the right to vote. I would be interested in Mr Humphries's reply to those specific points about people who do not have any realistic connection with the ACT voting in the ACT election. Is there any way that we can make sure that it is a realistic connection?
MR HUMPHRIES (5.41): Madam Speaker, I should briefly explain the provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act as it applies in Commonwealth elections. For example, take a person who was born and brought up in Coffs Harbour and left his home and went droving. He becomes a stockman and is on the droving routes in Queensland - I assume that they still have them - travelling backwards and forwards across Queensland droving cattle, or driving cattle, whatever the expression is. That person obviously has no fixed abode within Queensland. That person cannot enrol in Queensland under the Commonwealth Electoral Act, but he can enrol in another place, and one such place might be Coffs Harbour, where he was born and brought up and has a connection. Perhaps his next of kin, his mother or father, lives in that place. It is certainly envisaged under the Commonwealth electoral legislation that a person is able to vote, and may vote, when they are arguably ordinarily resident in another State.
The same implication would apply here. Take a person who was born and brought up in the ACT, or had parents in the ACT or something of that nature, who subsequently became a fruit picker in surrounding New South Wales and was travelling around New South Wales picking fruit. He did not have a permanent address. That person would have to rely, for Commonwealth purposes, on their enrolment in the ACT through this provision of the Commonwealth Electoral Act in order to vote in
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