Page 2119 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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The Commonwealth Government has amended the ACT (Electoral) Act not once but several times since 1988. Some of those amendments dealt with further modifications to the d'Hondt system for this year's election. Amongst other complex amendments, the Australian Capital Territory (Electoral) Amendment Act 1991 modified the modifications to the Commonwealth Electoral Act in its application in the ACT. It inserted new modifications and omitted others. So, as I am sure members would appreciate, in that context of so many amendments, the legal position that we are forced to work within is far from straightforward.
Furthermore, Madam Speaker, the amendments made to the ACT (Self-Government) Act this year do two important things. First, they allow the Assembly to pass its own electoral legislation, which is what we are going to do; and, secondly, they set defined parameters within which this is to be done. It is precisely this framework, with all its attendant complexities, which my department has been examining in conjunction with the Attorney-General's Department since the referendum result was announced.
There has also been consultation with the Commonwealth on the amendments made this year to give the ACT the parameters within which to develop our own legislation. Two examples of issues which have surfaced in the course of this consultation concern sections 48 and 67C of the self-government Act. Section 48 provides for the Commonwealth Minister to call an election if a Chief Minister is not elected within 30 days of a successful no-confidence motion and the Governor-General has not dissolved the Assembly. Madam Speaker, no such election can be called in a pre-election year, which is defined on the basis of an election being held every three years in February. This arrangement may not emerge as the Assembly's preferred option. In other words, the present wording of section 48 may constrain the ability of this Assembly to legislate in this year, and that is a matter that has to be dealt with.
To further illustrate that point, I point out that section 67C is one of a number of sections that set parameters around which the ACT electoral system must be developed. This section provides for the qualifications of electors. Madam Speaker, interestingly, it appears to provide a double test of a person's entitlement to vote. A person's name must be on the roll for Territory purposes, and that person must be eligible to vote for the House of Representatives. I believe that this Commonwealth provision needs to be reconsidered as it seems to restrict the Assembly's flexibility to legislate in relation to the franchise in the ACT.
Madam Speaker, my point in outlining these technical matters is simply to indicate that, before turning to the ACT system itself, the legal context - which is not free from doubt - must be clarified. To summarise: Mr Humphries, Madam Speaker, is quite wrong to suggest that the Government has not commenced work on the implementation of the Hare-Clark system. On the contrary, many of these complex issues have been examined and, as I informed the Assembly yesterday, the Government has a considered strategy for ensuring that the ACT's electoral system is developed in a coherent and managed way.
As I said yesterday, the target is to have the electoral boundaries in place and the electoral legislation passed by the Assembly before the end of 1993. That leaves well over 12 months before the election in February 1995. To commence this process, as I have said, I think it is appropriate to enact first the legislation
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