Page 1822 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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This bill, therefore, omits references to seven-member electorates in the Electoral Act 1992. In particular, section 34 of the Electoral Act provides for three electorates with seven members to be returned from one electorate and five members to be returned from the remaining two electorates. The bill amends section 34 by dividing the ACT into five electorates, with five members to be elected from each electorate. This bill only applies for the purposes of a general election held after the commencement of the Australian Capital Territory (Legislative Assembly) Act, which means it will apply, in relation to the 2016 ACT Legislative Assembly general election.
The amendments are drafted this way to provide the Electoral Commissioner with the power to act to facilitate moving to the 25-member Legislative Assembly. The remainder of the bill omits reference to seven-member electorates in sections 116 and 205(f) and in schedule 2. Section 116 provides for the grouping of candidates on ballot papers. Section 205(f) relates to limits on electoral expenditure for political party groupings.
The bill clarifies that the maximum multiplier for the electoral expenditure cap is the sum of, for each electorate, the lesser of five and the number of candidates for the electorate. The reference to the maximum multiplier of seven for seven-member electorates in the section is therefore omitted.
Schedule 2 contains tables for producing the Robson rotation of candidate names on ballot papers. This bill omits the table for seven-member electorates. This amendment is necessary to maintain the integrity of the Electoral Act and to make sure there is no ambiguity about the five-by-five electoral structure.
If the Assembly passes this bill and the Australian Capital Territory (Legislative Assembly) Bill, the next step will be a redistribution of the electorates to be carried out by the ACT Electoral Commissioner. These important pieces of legislation on the size of the Assembly come in the context of an inquiry into a range of electoral issues. As members would be aware, the Assembly established a Select Committee on Amendments to the Electoral Act 1992 which would inquire into the public position of the Labor government and Liberal opposition that the membership of this Assembly should be increased to 25 members at the 2016 election, the amendments that would be required to the Electoral Act as a result of this position, the recent High Court case of Unions New South Wales v New South Wales and its implications, and the Elections ACT report on the 2012 ACT election. The Assembly also resolved that that select committee would report back by the last day of June this year.
I note that some of the recommendations made in the Elections ACT’s report on the 2012 election were technical in nature and some were more substantive. The select committee in its discussion paper on this inquiry has raised a number of issues, including discussion about increased public funding of elections. The Electoral Commission made some additional recommendations in its submission to the inquiry. The report of the select committee may, therefore, recommend a number of amendments to the Electoral Act.
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