Page 1542 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
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strengthening our robust, fair, transparent and representative electoral system that has served us and continues to serve us so well in the ACT.
This bill supports this commitment by promoting equal opportunity for participation in the territory’s political process; improving the operation of the Electoral Act by removing drafting anomalies; ensuring consistency in how the Electoral Act applies; and addressing a number of outstanding recommendations from the select committee, as well as amendments that were identified by the Electoral Commission as being necessary to improve the operation of the act.
Particularly here we are leading the way by doing away with the concept of a closed roll for people who are not already on the electoral roll. The concept of a closed roll disadvantages young people in particular and it discourages full participation in elections and access to the right to vote. This amendment means that electors who turn 18 years of age after the commencement of the pre-polling period and in the lead-up to polling day will now be able to cast a vote where previously they could not. The government has full confidence in the Electoral Commissioner in the operation of this provision before the election.
The government are committed to promoting accountability and transparency in our democratic processes, and this bill achieves that by facilitating the identification of people responsible for the dissemination of electoral material. The bill clarifies that an individual is required to disclose their full name on disseminated electoral material. I note the amendment that will be moved later, and the government will be supporting that. The bill also prevents irresponsibility through anonymity, making it unlawful to publish electoral material that does not identify the author and enabling voters to be fully informed participants of a democratic society.
The amendments to the Public Unleased Land Act allow authorised officers to immediately remove electoral advertising signs that do not comply with the requirements of the Electoral Act or the code of practice for public land. The amendments are sufficient safeguards for an equitable and transparent electoral process, ensuring that those who are running for public office do so in a way which is fair and transparent.
The bill introduces provisions to clarify the operation of the Electoral Act and enhance the integrity of the ACT electoral system. The Hare-Clark system, well known for its complexity, is a form of proportional representation that uses a single transferable vote to determine final vacancies. Under this system surplus votes from an elected candidate are distributed to continuing candidates in the form of a vote value. Currently, the fractions of votes are ignored and rounded down to the nearest whole number. This bill makes amendments to round down the vote transfer values to six decimal places. This will achieve a greater level of accuracy and ensure that the rare possibility of unfair or anomalous election results is minimised.
As I mentioned during the introduction, the bill ensures consistent canvassing rules so that candidates and volunteers are clear about the distance from a polling place at which election-day canvassing is permitted. The bill removes the discretion from the commissioner to ensure that in all cases the 100-metre prohibition is measured from
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