Page 1699 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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which is not unreasonable—
for grouping rather than totally remove the right.
Like the ACT, the Tasmanian Electoral Act requires parties to have 100 members for registration. Only 10 nominators are required for an Independent to nominate, and any Independent putting themselves forward with only 10 nominators will appear in the ungrouped column.
However, one or more Tasmanian Independents can have access to their own column on the ballot paper by applying for grouping, backed by 100 nominators. In effect an Independent, or group of Independents, can have their own group by proving a level of nomination support equal to the membership support required to register a political party.
This is where the proposed ACT electoral changes will disadvantage Independents.
Simon Corbell, Attorney-General, wishes to disadvantage people in the ACT who seek to action their democratic rights. They are my words, not Mr Green’s, but let me read what Mr Green says:
This is where the proposed ACT electoral changes will disadvantage Independents. Unless Independents lodge a registration for political party status by 30 June this year, they will be forced to appear in the ungrouped column of the ballot paper with all other Independents.
Mr Green goes on to say:
Election from the Ungrouped column is possible, as was shown by Paul Osborne’s election at the 1995 ACT election. (How-to-vote material was still allowed in 1995.) The last occasion in Tasmania where an ungrouped candidate was elected was in 1959, and I am not aware of an Ungrouped candidate ever being elected to the Senate or to any state Legislative Council.
For Independents to receive the same rights—
we are very strong on human rights here until it affects the Labor Party and what it wants the outcome of an election to be—
as parties in accessing their own group, it seems appropriate that a higher test of support be applied, as is done in Tasmania. Simply grouping all Independents together, whatever their political persuasion or level of support, is unfair to Independents, but above all, deprives voters of ballot paper prompts on like-minded Independent candidates.
Not only is it undemocratic and unfair to those who wish to represent the jurisdiction where they live; it is actually unfair in the opinion of Mr Green and I think the opinion of all members here bar the Labor Party, and particularly the Attorney-General. Mr Green continues:
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