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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2308 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

it would also enable changes to the nature of representation of electorates and to the boundaries of the electorates themselves.

Two options were put. The first was four electorates-three electorates of six members and one of five members. The second was three electorates-two of seven members and one of nine members. The first option would require an amendment of the current entrenchment provisions requiring each electorate to have an odd number of members. For members who may not be aware, an entrenchment provision can be altered by a two-thirds majority of the Assembly, or by a majority of the Assembly and a majority of Canberra citizens eligible to vote at a referendum.

The committee also noted the following arguments advanced to support increasing the size of the Assembly to 25 members:

it would enable five electorates of five members each

each electorate would have the same number of elected representatives

the proportionality of five-members electorates is the basis for political representation in the Tasmanian House of Assembly and in other Hare-Clark jurisdictions

each member could be expected to have a greater familiarity with their electorate (since it would be smaller than is the case with three electorates).

Two members were impressed with the arguments put forward by witnesses and summarised by Professor Pettit in his report in relation to four-year terms.

Another recommendation relates to amending the Electoral Act to require that the Electoral Commissioner not sit on a matter involving a review of his decision in relation to a recount. Recommendation 7 relates to exactly when a member who is defeated should cease to be a member. We received some evidence in relation to those matters and thought some tidying up was necessary there.

We recommend that a decision about increasing the number of members be made before October 2002 so that the Electoral Commission can take the decision into account as it conducts its 2002-03 redistribution required by the Electoral Act. In the event that a decision is not made by October 2002, then the Assembly should amend the Electoral Act to provide for the 2002-03 redistribution to be delayed until the final decision is made on increasing the number of members. For that reason the inquiry was time critical. The government will now have to look at it, respond to it and move forward on it if it so desires.

This will be a useful report for our community for some time into the future. Most importantly, it will assist the efforts of the ACT legislature to encourage the federal government to remove the legislative constraints upon the Assembly determining the number of its members and the number of ministers that best suits the people of the ACT.

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