Page 966 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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a Commonwealth election. You might say that such people have no connection with the ACT - I would argue that they do - and the Commonwealth legislation does require a certain connection. I think that it is an overstatement on the part of the Chief Minister to say that there is no connection. It seems to me entirely appropriate that those circumstances do apply.
I am saying that these provisions should apply to ACT elections as well. Frankly, if they can apply in a Commonwealth election, why should they not apply in an ACT election? Why should not a person who might be roaming through New South Wales picking fruit, or a person who is driving cattle in Queensland, or a person who is working on a railroad in South Australia, for various reasons not being able to enrol as an elector in those places, be able to rely on their connection with the ACT?
I concede that it is a less ascertainable method of enrolment. It is fairly subjective and it does open the possibility, at least, of rorting in the system. Someone could be told, "Look, we need your vote in the ACT, so enrol to vote here. You have a connection with the place". But I think that the possibility of a person switching their enrolment all over the place for the purposes of voting all over the country is a fairly limited one, and that is not the way, in practice, that itinerant voting provisions work. It seems to me that a person chooses a place where they wish to be enrolled. They can get that enrolment only by showing that they do not have a permanent place of residence. I believe, Madam Speaker, that, for the very small number of people this affects, it is an appropriate provision, and we should pick up the same provisions in respect of itinerant voters that apply at the Commonwealth level.
MS SZUTY (5.45): Mr Moore indicated earlier that some of these amendments, particularly for him and me, were a question of balance. The Chief Minister pointed out that there may well be itinerant voters from all over Australia who may present themselves and want to vote in an ACT Legislative Assembly election, but I think that the number of such voters will be small indeed. I certainly hope that that would be the case. By enabling itinerant voters to vote in Assembly elections we are giving people of the ACT who are itinerant workers the opportunity to vote. They may be people in all sorts of circumstances. Mr Humphries indicated that house-sitters perhaps fall into this category. Certainly a number of homeless people would fit into this category. I think, on balance, it is appropriate that we do give itinerant voters the chance to vote in ACT Legislative Assembly elections. I think predominantly it will be ACT voters who will be doing so.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.46): Madam Speaker, this is not a matter on which I feel terribly strongly and, as other speakers have said, it would apply to only a small number of people; but Mr Humphries has raised the question: What is the difference between the scope of the Commonwealth electoral legislation and the scope of the ACT's legislation? There is a very obvious difference and it is a crucial difference here, and that is that the Commonwealth legislation applies to Federal elections which are, for the most part, held on a nationwide basis and the Territory's legislation applies only to this Territory. In my view, it is a very different matter.
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