Page 1192 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
79. Page 105, line 30, proposed new section 241, add at the end the following paragraph:
"(m) a decision to refuse a request to make a specified amendment of a claim or return under subsection 238(4).".
Madam Speaker, these amendments are necessary in order to meet some recommendations made by the Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation. We are inserting some new paragraphs in proposed new section 241. The purpose of these new paragraphs is to provide review mechanisms for the following decisions: To reject an objection to an enrolment under new section 75 on the basis that the commissioner considers the objection frivolous or vexatious; to refuse an application for party registration under new section 84; to refuse a request to extend the period for lodgment of claims for payment of public funding under new section 206; and to refuse a request to amend a claim or return under new section 238.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.31): Madam Speaker, the Opposition is pleased to support these amendments. The effect of them is, in a sense, to increase the level of accountability by the commissioner and to ensure that the appropriate decisions made by him or her are reviewable by the AAT. If a decision has any element of importance about it, if a decision is of some significance - and these are - there ought obviously to be some capacity to challenge it, or to challenge a failure to make a decision in this way. In particular, the amendment that provides for the right to challenge a dismissal of an objection to the enrolment of a person could be quite significant, given the matters that Mr Stevenson has raised in this place before about fraudulent voting and possible fraudulent registration. This ensures that we have a capacity to be assured that the process is open and accountable. My party has strong views about the need for maximum accountability for this particular process, in both the conduct of elections and the operation of the office of the commissioner. We would like to see some of those measures taken even further, and we will, no doubt, do so in conjunction with further amendments we might consider in the future in respect of this legislation.
MS SZUTY (3.32): I wish to ask a question of the Chief Minister, if she is able to answer it. It concerns Government amendment No. 79, which seeks to add the following paragraph at the end of the section:
(m) a decision to refuse a request to make a specified amendment of a claim or return under subsection 238(4).
Going through the list of reviewable decisions, they go all the way through from (a) to (k), but there is no (l). Perhaps the Chief Minister, or somebody, could explain to me why we do not have an (l)? We go from (k) to (m)?
Mr Humphries: I think the "l" is too much like "1".
MS SZUTY: Yes, I wondered about that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .