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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-05 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE CITY COUNCIL

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question about the Adelaide City Council.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On 17 October last year, Business SA and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association called for an expansion of the electoral roll for the Adelaide City Council to include city workers. On 7 November on Radio FIVEaa Mr Koutsantonis advised that the proposal had become Labor Party policy. My questions are:

1. Has the minister prepared a submission or is she aware that a cabinet submission has been prepared for permission to draft a bill that would expand the electoral roll to include people who do not reside in the Adelaide City Council area but are employed in the area?

2. If so, what consultation has occurred with Adelaide City Council and the Local Government Association in the preparation of the instructions for the draft bill?

3. Is it government policy to extend Adelaide City Council voting rights to city workers, and does the government intend to extend this policy to other local councils?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:31): The honourable member has certainly been in this place long enough to know that any details pertaining to cabinet submissions or potential submissions are not made public. So, I am certainly not prepared to talk about what may or may not be in the mind of members of cabinet at this point in time.

However, a resolution was passed at our last convention in October that called for an amendment to legislation to allow employees who work in the city to vote in the Adelaide City Council elections. Obviously, this is a very complex matter and a number of issues would need to be considered if a bill were to be developed to amend that act.

Some of those issues include things such as whether city workers should automatically be enrolled or should have to take action to claim enrolment; how to define 'city workers' for inclusion in the expanded voters roll; what type of identity check, if any, should be required of those claiming an entitlement to vote; which agency should be required to compile the 'city workers' voters roll and how the administrative burden of compiling the larger roll should be resourced; whether a person who has more than one entitlement to vote, such as a worker, a resident or a property owner, should be able to vote any more than once in each of the two elections; and what penalty, if any, should be imposed for falsely claiming an entitlement to vote.

I am sure that as these issues are explored many other detailed issues will emerge that will have to be considered very carefully. It is important that we do not rush in and change a system in a way that creates a wide range of serious complications or irregularities, and even problems legally. My office has written to the Attorney-General's office seeking the advice of the Electoral Commissioner on these issues and, to the best of my knowledge, I have not heard back from the Attorney-General.

Clearly, in identifying the wide range of issues that obviously need careful consideration, we would have to consult with a wide range of different stakeholders in assessing those matters, and that is a task that would also need to be considered.

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