Page 954 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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The limiting circumstances to which I refer are the terms of the referendum decision which was made by the electors of the ACT at the election referendum of February 1992. In a sense, Madam Speaker, the Assembly has a mandate, which is both empowering and delimiting, which requires certain steps to be taken, and it cannot and should not depart from that mandate.
The preamble, Madam Speaker, is the only place in the entire Electoral Act where that mandate is referred to, and it should be evident therefore to our successors in future generations who come to this place and who seek to amend the Electoral Act of 1994 or 1992, whatever it will be called, that the preamble indicates that their capacity to change what has been done here is not as easy as it would be in the case of other equivalent pieces of legislation. It is extremely important that the preamble stay there as a reminder to future legislators and to people examining legislation of the Territory that this legislation was born out of a referendum where the people of the ACT spoke, as I indicated the other day, quite decisively on the nature of the electoral system they desired. Madam Speaker, it is appropriate to omit paragraph 5 of the preamble, since it talks about the need to establish legislation for the purpose of setting up this system. That is now finally happening and therefore it should go, but the other paragraphs of the preamble are quite important, indeed essential, and I urge the Assembly to accept the amendment which I put forward to retain them.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.01): Madam Speaker, the Government will not be opposing this amendment proposed by Mr Humphries, which has the effect merely of leaving the preamble in the Act, but deleting the temporary clause which was inserted in 1992. The preamble, as I understand it, Madam Speaker, has no legislative force. It is true to say that the content of the proposed amended preamble is not at variance with the Government's position. I do not regard this as a particularly substantive amendment, and for that reason we do not oppose it.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Clause 6
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.01), by leave: I move:
Paragraph 6(c) -
1. Page 4, line 28, proposed new definition of "elector", omit "enrolled", substitute "who is enrolled, or is to be taken under this Act to be enrolled,".
2. Page 6, lines 20 and 21, proposed new definition of "registered voting ticket", omit the definition.
3. Page 7, lines 11 to 13, proposed new definition of "voting ticket square", omit the definition.
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