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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3084 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

The commission recommended that the formality rules be brought into line with the instructions, or that the Assembly publicly affirm that the instructions are intended to be different from the formality requirements.

After discussing this issue with representatives of the other parties and the Independents, it was agreed that the formality rules should remain unchanged. The Hare-Clark system is a preferential voting system. It works best if each voter marks preferences for several candidates. Consequently, voters should be encouraged to show at least as many preferences as there are candidates to be elected in their electorate. However, where a voter fails, for whatever reason, to follow the instructions on the ballot paper, that person's vote should be counted so long as the voter's intention is clear, not discarded for a technicality.

Two minor recommendations made by the commission will also not be implemented. The commission recommended that the requirement to authorise notices of electoral meetings be removed. The Government has not accepted this recommendation, as notices of meetings may themselves convey a political message which should carry an authorisation. The commission also recommended that members of the Assembly should not be entitled to unlimited free updates of the electronic electoral rolls for their electorates, for cost reasons. In considering this recommendation, members agreed that it is not unreasonable to receive the free quarterly updates that are now regularly provided, and that it would improve the service to the community that members provide if they could have access to the electronic rolls for all three electorates. The Bill accordingly provides for this change. Another issue touched on in the Electoral Commission's report, updating the funding and disclosure laws, has already been dealt with by passage of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1996. The commission's recommendation regarding an October election date has been adopted by the Assembly in passing Mr Moore's Electoral (Amendment) Act 1997.

Mr Speaker, turning to the remaining provisions of the Bill, I am pleased to note that many of them are intended to improve service to electors. These include: Allowing ordinary voting at pre-poll voting centres in the ACT, so that electors voting before polling day, because they are unable to attend a polling place on polling day, can vote without being required to complete declaration certificates; allowing for pre-poll voting in the ACT up to 8.00 pm on the Friday before polling day, rather than the current 6.00 pm close; allowing silent electors to cast an ordinary vote at a polling place, rather than a declaration vote; closing the roll at 8.00 pm rather than 6.00 pm; not requiring payment of a deposit when an objection is made to an enrolment on the basis that a person is of unsound mind; allowing an additional class of persons to make submissions at public hearings into objections against redistribution proposals; ensuring that any details submitted to the Electoral Commission by an elector with "silent" enrolment that could enable another person to contact the silent elector, such as postal addresses or phone numbers, will not be made public; providing for the automatic issue of postal ballot papers to registered declaration voters, rather than the automatic dispatch of application for postal voting; and requiring car stickers to be authorised, to prevent mischievous electoral advertising.

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