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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3551 ..
A further amendment I am proposing to the bill is the establishment by the Electoral Commissioner of an electoral reference committee to provide advice to the commissioner on the implementation of electronic voting. This committee would comprise nominees from each political party registered in the ACT and nominees of each Independent MLA. The commissioner could also appoint to the committee persons who represent the interests of people with special needs that impact adversely on their ability to vote; for example, vision-impaired people and persons from groups which have a general interest in the conduct of elections, such as the Proportional Representation Society and academic institutions.
The committee would have advisory functions only rather than any decision-making power. The committee is intended to mirror the Electoral Commissioner's own proposal for a reference group. By putting this amendment up, I am not suggesting that the commissioner could not be trusted to do what he says he will do. What I am doing is asking the Assembly to give its endorsement to what the commissioner is proposing and to give the reference group a formal role in this process.
I just think that this Assembly should be extra careful in dealing with proposals to change our voting system. Any proposed changes to our voting system must be fair to all stakeholders and the process of developing these changes must be totally above board and accountable. The electoral reference committee would be in a sense just an extension of the scrutineering process that occurs during election times and keeps the Electoral Commissioner, whoever that might be at the time, accountable to the public.
A further and related amendment I am proposing is that the Electoral Commissioner must undertake a review of the conduct of electronic voting in the October 2001 election. Under the current powers, he has to provide special reports to the minister and the Assembly. This review should be completed by the middle of 2002. Again, I am sure that the commissioner was thinking of doing such a review anyway, but I would like the Assembly to direct him formally to undertake such a review to demonstrate to the community the significance that we attach to making sure that our voting system continues to be fair and accountable. Under my amendment, the electoral reference committee would have a formal input to this review.
As I said in the debate at the in-principle stage, I think that the Assembly should be very cautious about fiddling with our electoral system in case we get it wrong. I am prepared to accept a trial of electronic voting, but I do not think that we should be writing it into the Electoral Act as a permanent amendment just yet. Let us wait and see how this trial goes.
Debate (on motion by Mr Smyth ) adjourned to the next sitting.
Debate resumed from 25 May 2000, on motion by Mr Moore:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STANHOPE
(Leader of the Opposition) (4.44): Mr Speaker, the Minister for Health and Community Care introduced this bill on 25 May. The bill deletes the existing
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