Page 378 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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It also provides that the certified list of electors used in polling places include the year of birth and the gender of the voter. This information will not be available in certified extracts provided to candidates but the commissioner will be able to provide the extract in electronic form, if requested.
The bill also removes the requirement for postal voting papers to be witnessed, thus making the process of voting just that much easier and more private.
Finally, the bill amends the Electoral Regulation 1993 to give the commissioner flexibility in relation to the layout of declaration ballot papers and makes minor consequential amendments to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Act 2008.
The bill makes a number of relatively minor and non-controversial changes, some of which will create efficiencies. The others will make our electoral system more accessible. In saying that we will support the bill, I do note, from the attorney’s tabled response to the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety’s inquiry into this bill and the accompanying casual vacancies bill, that the attorney has decided that he will not bring forward the casual vacancies bill.
I welcome that as a victory for democracy in the ACT and a victory for upholding the principles enshrined in Hare-Clark. I note the 20th anniversary of the success of the Hare-Clark referendum was celebrated only yesterday. I will say more about that in the adjournment debate. The opposition will be supporting this bill and welcomes the back-down on the undemocratic processes proposed by the government in the count back legislation and welcomes the changes that were made in this bill.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (4.51), in reply: I thank members for their overall support of this bill. The bill amends the Electoral Act 1992 and the Electoral Regulation 1993, in line with the recommendations made by the ACT Electoral Commission in its report on the conduct of the 2008 ACT Legislative Assembly election. It also makes consequential amendments to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Act 2008.
These amendments will improve the ACT’s electoral system in ways proposed by the commission in its report. Members will be aware that this bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety for review, and the committee recommended that the Assembly support the bill with two qualifications. These qualifications related to the removal of clauses 7 and 8 of the bill, which are consequential on the amendments in the Election (Casual Vacancies) Amendment Bill which, as Mrs Dunne has indicated, does not have the support of the Liberal opposition. I will turn to these provisions in more detail later.
The bill makes a number of amendments to finetune aspects of the electoral process. These include allowing candidate deposits to be refunded to people other than the candidate, providing that a certified list of electors used in polling places contains the year of birth and gender of each elector, ensuring that an extract of the certified list of
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