Page 3833 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Madam Speaker, it is the intention that this Bill apply only to those very major facilities such as Lower Molonglo, the land fill sites and the Queanbeyan treatment works. It is not the intention to license land developers for more than one year. I may attend to that during the detail stage of the debate on another night.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail Stage
Clause 1
Debate (on motion by Mr Wood) adjourned.
ELECTORAL (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1994
Debate resumed from 22 September 1994, on motion by Ms Follett:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (8.35): Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party will support this legislation. I must say that, when the legislation arrived, the Liberal Party looked at it with very careful scrutiny and with a fine toothcomb to find hidden traps; but I am pleased to say that we did not find any. Perhaps there are none there; but we did not find any, if there are. There are five essential things which this legislation does. Public holidays which fall on crucial dates, such as close of nominations or close of the rolls, do not interfere with the process of conducting the election. That means that they are not deferred by a day, as would be the case if the Interpretation Act applied. Also, under this legislation, it is not necessary for Independent MLAs to disclose their private debt, which would be, anomalously, the result of the legislation we passed earlier this year. It is also necessary to make a small adjustment to the way in which the fourth schedule to the Act, which deals with the calculation of transfer values of votes, applies in respect of the filling of a casual vacancy. Those things are fixed up, and there is no problem with those.
I will make a short comment about the other two matters which this legislation touches on. One is the question of the close of rolls. At the present time, the legislation requires that the rolls must be closed on the date up to which people may lodge their application to be on the roll. So, if the rolls are to close at 6.00 pm on the day 29 days before the election is to be held and I come in at 5.55 pm with my application form to go on the roll - clearly, I cannot get put on the roll within those five minutes - under the arrangements presently in the law, I will be excluded from being on the roll. That is obviously iniquitous, and we should change the provisions to reflect what I understand is current practice. It should be possible for a person to have their name added to the roll, even though the date for the close of rolls has actually passed, because they have made their application before that date.
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