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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4039 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I will just say, though, Mr Speaker, in case you thought I was going to stop there, that the principle which has operated this evening and which is driving much of this attitude is that we must remain aligned with the Commonwealth. One does wonder, if you take this kind of attitude, why it is, then, that we have a separate electoral Act, a separate electoral commission and so on for the ACT. That, perhaps, is a little naive in the sense that our Electoral Commissioner has to deal with the Hare-Clark system, which is, of course, very different. But it is different in this respect only. One does wonder about such a close alignment. We do have our own Electoral Commissioner, and we need one. From these other perspectives we need to have our own Electoral Commissioner who can monitor our system under Hare-Clark, who can ensure that it works efficiently and who responds directly to this parliament.

But to then say, "We therefore, must align with the Federal Parliament", I think, is very questionable indeed. It is even more so, Mr Speaker, when we have a situation where the Labor Party and the Liberal Party have ACT branches, and I realise those branches do contest Federal elections, are involved in those and are involved in fundraising for those elections. But I think that being able to separate that money is not that hard.

Amendment negatived.

Clause agreed to.

Remainder of Bill, by leave, taken as a whole

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (9.44): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move my two amendments together.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I have circulated a supplementary explanatory memorandum on these two amendments. They are very simple. One is to align the reporting date with the amendments that were effected by the Electoral (Application) Act a few weeks ago; and the other is to repeal the Electoral (Application) Act since it is no longer necessary. I present my supplementary explanatory memorandum. I move:

Page 13, line 29, clause 33, proposed replacement subsection 230(1), omit "18 November", substitute "17 December".

New clause -

Page 14, line 22, add the following clause:

"Repeal of Electoral (Application) Act 1996

36. The Electoral (Application) Act 1996 is repealed.".

Amendments agreed to.

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