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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-14 Daily Xml
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ELECTORAL (LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL VOTING) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Second reading.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (17:16): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

This Bill amends the Electoral Act 1985.

Following the results of the 2013 Federal Election there have been widespread calls to reform the way preferences act in proportional representation voting systems throughout Australia. These have been generated by 'preference harvesting' behaviour, which has seen some candidates elected to the Senate with significantly fewer primary votes than other ultimately unelected candidates. Gaming of this system has resulted in there being a degree of a lucky dip in becoming an upper house member.

The Government believes that these outcomes are undemocratic. This capacity to manipulate the system needs to be addressed.

This Bill makes some minor changes to the Act. They are not a complete solution to the problem. The Government encourages discussions to see if the Bill can be improved. There is a belief that, given sufficient time, the solution may well rest with some variation on Optional Preferential Voting or other reform of the preferential voting system. Given the time in the current electoral cycle, we are not likely to be in a position to progress a wholesale reform of this nature, though the Government is not closing this door.

There remains a need at least to take targeted measures that will reduce the capacity of non-registered groups and candidates to harvest preferences. This Bill achieves this by increasing the nomination requirements so that a single candidate. The Bill requires a single candidate for the House of Assembly to obtain the support and signature of 20 electors and a candidate for the Legislative Council 100 electors (as opposed to the current requirement of 2). This will encourage quality candidates who have the reasonable support and backing within the community.

Further, only political parties and groups may lodge a voting ticket and hence obtain an 'above the line' voting ticket square. However, if candidates group together, they must have the supporting signatures of different electors. If two or more candidates have the same signatures, that signature will not be counted for the purpose of making nomination.

As a consequence, electors will have to provide a preference for every candidate below the line on the ballot paper should they wish to vote for an ungrouped independent candidate .

Further, the Bill will also reduce the number of descriptive words that may be provided adjacent to a candidate or group name on the Legislative Council ballot paper from 5 or less words to 2 words.

Finally the ballot paper will be required to list candidates and groups in an order beginning with registered political party groups, independent groups and then lastly independents candidates.

I advise that I also propose to increase by regulation the nomination fee for single candidates from $450 to $2,000.

We believe that in the available timeframe, the minimalist approach taken in this Bill will address the problem to some degree, but will not be the ultimate solution.

I repeat, we will be open to discussion on this Bill between the Houses.

I commend the Bill to Members.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Electoral Act 1985

4—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

This amendment amends the definition of voting ticket square to reflect the fact that, in accordance with the amendments to section 63, only groups will be entitled to lodge voting tickets for a Legislative Council election (and have voting ticket squares printed on the ballot paper).

5—Amendment of section 53A—Nomination of single candidate

This amendment requires the nomination for election as a member of the House of Assembly by a single candidate to be signed by 20 electors and for election as a member of the Legislative Council by a single candidate to be signed by 100 different electors for the district (currently, the requirement is 2 electors for both Houses).

6—Amendment of section 59—Printing of Legislative Council ballot papers

The amendment to subsection (1)(a) requires groups endorsed by registered political parties to appear on the Legislative Council ballot paper before other groups. The other amendment to subsection (1) is consequential.

7—Amendment of section 62—Printing of descriptive information on ballot papers

The deletion of subsection (1)(d) reduces the number of additional descriptive words that a candidate may have printed adjacent to the candidate's name on a ballot paper (after the word 'Independent') from 5 to 2.

8—Amendment of section 63—Voting tickets

The new inserted subsections relate to the entitlement to lodge a voting ticket for an election. Relevantly, in the case of a Legislative Council election, only a group of candidates is entitled to lodge a voting ticket.

The other amendments are consequential.

9—Amendment of section 139—Regulations

This clause amends section 139 to include certain regulation making powers for the purposes of the Act, including the power to fix fees and the power for a matter or thing in respect of which regulations may be made to be determined according to the discretion of the Electoral Commissioner.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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