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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1450 ..

The ACT Electoral Commission undertakes extensive on-going enrolment programs in conjunction with the Australian Electoral Commission. Several of these programs target the 18-24 year old age group.

Schools Enrolment Project

The ACT Electoral Commission conducts an annual school enrolment project which is aimed at working with schools to collect electoral enrolment forms. Each government and private school with college-age students in the ACT is paid $2.50 for each enrolment form it collects from its students. This program has been conducted successfully since 2000, and will be conducted later this year in the lead up to the roll close for the October election.

Continuous Roll Update

As part of the national Continuous Roll Update program, the ACT Electoral Commission provides the Australian Electoral Commission with data from ACT Road User Services, the ACT Secondary Schools Board, ACTEWAGL and the ACT Rental Bond Board. Data is also received from Centrelink and the citizenship authorities. This data is used to target people who may not be correctly enrolled with direct mail, including enrolment forms, and targeted household reviews.

This has proved to be a very effective method of keeping the electoral roll up to date. The schools and road user data is particularly useful for identifying young people who may not be correctly enrolled.

Electoral Education

The ACT Electoral Commission recognises the importance of electoral education and offers a comprehensive electoral education program to all ACT schools. The electoral education program is aimed primarily at raising awareness of the ACT’s electoral system. Education sessions are often conducted in cooperation with the Legislative Assembly’s Education Officer. Participants at these sessions, which are conducted at the Legislative Assembly or in schools, are shown how the Members of the Legislative Assembly are elected and how the Assembly functions. Hands on learning often includes a mock election where enrolment is emphasised. Electoral enrolment requirements are also stressed in this education program.

Printed Electoral Education Material

In addition to conducting face-to-face education sessions, the ACT Electoral Commission has developed a range of printed electoral education resources for distribution to schools. This material is primarily aimed at providing teachers with the ability to conduct electoral education in their own classrooms. This service is part of an Australia-wide move to incorporate electoral education and civics education in regular school curricula. The material is distributed to all school libraries by the Assembly and is advertised in the Assembly’s and the Commission’s promotional material. All the material is available from the Assembly’s and the Commission’s internet sites.

Student Representative Council Elections

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