Page 599 - Week 02 - Thursday, 19 February 2015
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We will not support associated entities being removed from the party grouping expenditure cap. We will propose that a limit be applied to the amount of administrative funding that is payable to a party. We will propose an amendment, based on the committee report, to change the 100-metre rule to provide a bigger buffer around a polling place where canvassing cannot occur.
We will propose 24-hour reporting of gifts made in the final week before an election. We will put in an amendment that implements the committee recommendation that penalties and fines for not voting be doubled. And we will put in an amendment that implements the committee recommendation to change the text on the ballot paper in regard to numbering boxes.
I would like briefly to touch on some of the other things this bill will do if it is passed today. There are a range of administrative amendments recommended by Elections ACT, such as definitions of an “Australian government body”. The bill also seeks to remove the requirement for political parties to have an ACT election account. I must admit, we were in two minds about whether removing the need for an ACT election account was a good idea, especially as parties would now have them set up. But I am sure the ACT Electoral Commission is diligent in its duty of auditing accounts, and it has confirmed that the account is no longer necessary and that auditing can be done across accounts.
Clause 11 ensures that there is only one reporting agent for a party, MLA or candidate at any one time by ensuring that the appointment of one reporting agent ends on another being appointed. The bill tidies up some language around anonymous gifts, clarifying that anonymous gifts are those gifts made anonymously but that are less than $1,000.
Clause 32 of the bill tightens up the reporting requirements for donations in an election year, with a seven-day reporting time frame after 30 June in the capped expenditure period. As I mentioned earlier, the Greens will be tabling an amendment to tighten this up even further by requiring a 24-hour turnaround on reporting in the final week before an election.
Clauses 54 and 56 ensure that people’s home addresses are not listed on the return made public by the Electoral Commissioner. Clause 57 modernises the act in regard to commentary made on social media in an election period. Under section 292, on dissemination of unauthorised election matter, it extends the exception for news publications to personal views on social media.
The final part of this bill, clauses 58 to 60, makes changes about how the vote is counted after an election when two or more candidates are tied. This is a complex amendment about distributing surpluses—far too complex to attempt to explain today and one perhaps best left to the Electoral Commissioner. But I thank the Proportional Representation Society and Elections ACT for presenting this issue for resolution. There was clearly a place for the law to be amended.
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