Page 2027 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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has always had that number of electorates. I think it is a reasonable observation that minor parties like the Greens can and do achieve success in five-member electorates.
And we have seen other instances where independents have been returned to this place. It is not uncommon for them to be returned from five-member electorates. It is worth highlighting the success of both Dave Rugendyke and Paul Osborne. Each of them was returned from five-member electorates—not from the seven-member Molonglo electorate but from the five-member Ginninderra and Brindabella electorates. So it is worth highlighting that five-member electorates are not evil; nor do they discriminate against smaller parties or independents. They deliver representation consistent with the capacity of candidates to secure the necessary quotas.
A 25-member model is a good model for our city. I think it is particularly good, as a member for Molonglo—other members from Molonglo can attest to this—because of the unworkability of a very large seven-member electorate in terms of the capacity to provide, firstly, clearly identifiable members associated with clear communities of interest. In Molonglo, I would argue, it is increasingly an impossible task to represent the interests of everybody, from those who live in the established inner north and inner south in the oldest parts of the city through to the rapidly growing suburbs of Gungahlin and the areas of Woden and Weston Creek, built largely in the 1960s and 1970s. These are very different communities, with people with very different interests and very different issues. The seven-member electorate simply does not do those communities justice.
A five-member constituency, whilst not being able to be perfect in terms of its alignment with the boundaries of the relevant districts in the ACT, has a far greater capacity to meet those needs of our community. As I have said, the ACT does currently have those three electorates. This bill changes that structure to provide for five electorates with five elected representatives each.
With the increase in size and the change in number per electorate, the bill will make a number of necessary consequential amendments. It removes all references to seven-member electorates, including on ballot papers and in relation to the expenditure caps in relation to campaign finance matters. As these changes will be in place for the next election in 2016, there will be a significant amount of work required in the next two years to support the new arrangements. After this bill and the ACT Legislative Assembly bill have been adopted by this place, the ACT Electoral Commission will be required to commence the important step of increasing the size of the Assembly through the redistribution process.
The Electoral Act requires that a redistribution of electorates for the Assembly must begin as soon as practicable after the day two years before the next general election is due—that is, after 15 October 2014. The commission’s previous experience suggests that the redistribution process would take approximately 12 months. The redistribution is carried out in accordance with the provisions set out in the act and includes several opportunities for public participation throughout the process. The first is the appointment of the redistribution committee by the commission itself. This committee is specified in the act. It consists of the Electoral Commissioner, the Planning and Land Authority, the Surveyor-General and a member appointed by the
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