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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 2065 ..

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: We will indeed.

MRS CROSS: Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is interesting that he should say that there is been not one scintilla of evidence and not one complaint, and yet he is putting forward a heap of them that he was prepared to barter with on—what?—complaints or on recommendations made, which is interesting. I have information from the father of the Hare-Clark system—I suppose you would call Bogey Musidlak the father of Hare-Clark in the ACT, or the cousin—which says that, in regard to recommendations from the ACT Electoral Commission, it is interesting that, yes, they did a review of the Electoral Act in 2001, but that does not mean that the recommendations are all desirable and you have to take them on.

We must remember those words from the Chief Minister “not one scintilla of evidence”. Let’s use that with every amendment that he has put forward or that has been circulated; let us use that; let us remember those words; and let us throw them back at the Chief Minister and see whether any of this smacks of hypocrisy—I withdraw that.

Proposed new clause 3A agreed to.

Clause 4 agreed to.

Clauses 5 to 9, by leave, taken together.

MRS CROSS (11.06): I seek leave to move amendments Nos 1 to 3 circulated in my name together.

Leave granted.

MRS CROSS: I know that they are going to go down. I move amendments Nos 1 to 3 circulated in my name together [see schedule 3 at page 2121].

Amendments 1, 2 and 3 relate to reducing the number of members who have to belong to a party from 100 to 50. I know they are going to go down so I am not going to speak any further to those three.

MR STEFANIAK (11.06): She is right, Mr Deputy Speaker; we’re opposing it.

MS DUNDAS (11.07): I actually think that these amendments warrant some debate. They are issues that are important and look at exactly how we define a political party in the ACT. Currently a political party is required to have at least 100 members eligible to vote in the territory in order to register under the Electoral Act. However, this number is, as the Chief Minister himself indicated before, an arbitrary choice. It is not based on any evidence or proportion of the population. There is a genuine question as to whether it is appropriate.

This requirement was originally proposed after the early elections in the ACT when the electoral system was still a modified d’Hondt system. As some members will remember, this electoral system had a much lower quota and there was some concern at the sheer number of political parties that were registering. The 100-member limit was designed to

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