Page 1146 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
She cannot commute between Canberra and Sydney. The Chief Minister may say that she has abandoned the ACT, but I think the more likely interpretation is that she is furthering her education and would be likely to return to the ACT at some point in the future. In Tasmania there have been instances of people in this position and the constitution Act of Tasmania was amended, I think in the 1960s, to allow people to take up seats in the Tasmanian Parliament under count-back if they were eligible under that procedure, notwithstanding the fact that they might have moved interstate at that time.
I think, Madam Speaker, that we have here an appropriate arrangement, particularly for a place like Canberra where these sorts of things happen all the time. Another possible example, incidentally, is where somebody has contested an election and after the election has moved to a property just outside the ACT but still works in Canberra. It would be a bit harsh to exclude such people from participation in the ACT. My provision, particularly my amendments which are circulated on the dark green sheet - that is an amendment to proposed new section 193 - make it clear that the combined effect of that amendment and the other amendments to the Bill is to make it necessary for a person to move back to the ACT straightaway. They cannot indefinitely not be a resident. They must move back to the ACT in order to take up their seat. At the point where they become a member of the Assembly they would have to be resident in the Territory. It is possible that someone might have gone to Alaska and have no intention of coming back. They, first of all, would not put their name forward if that were the case. Secondly, they would not be eligible because they would not be a resident of the ACT at the time they were to take up their seat. I think, Madam Speaker, we have covered those points, and I hope that this amendment will be supported.
MADAM SPEAKER: Chief Minister, we are going to vote on the Government's amendment No. 54, not the Opposition's amendment.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (12.42): That is right, Madam Speaker. Very briefly, Madam Speaker, in support of my amendment and foreshadowing opposition to Mr Humphries's, it has been pointed out to me that somebody with a fixed or definite intention to return to their enrolled address in the ACT can remain on the roll for the ACT. It may not be necessary, in the circumstances that Mr Humphries has described, for somebody to ever be taken off the role. I would commend my amendment rather than Mr Humphries's.
MR MOORE (12.43): The question I have in my mind for Mr Humphries is this: Had one of the members currently in the Liberal Party lost their seat under the current d'Hondt system, would the Liberal Party have replaced that candidate with the person that he refers to? I think it is highly unlikely that that would have been the case, but we do not know. I concede that. I think, Madam Speaker, that Ms Follett answered the last of those questions that gave me any doubt when she said that somebody who intends to remain an ACT citizen can, under certain circumstances, remain on the electoral roll. I think that is a reasonable way to deal with the problem that you are trying to deal with. For that reason I reaffirm my position.
Amendment agreed to.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .