Motions

BY-ELECTIONS

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (20:37): I move:

That this council—

1. Is committed to promoting an efficient and democratic election process;

2. Condemns the decision by the Speaker to run two by-elections on different dates at an increased cost to South Australians; and

3. Calls on the government to ensure that where two or more by-elections are necessary, they are held on one Saturday, as was the case on 11 February 2012 with the Ramsay and Port Adelaide by-elections.

I will not spend a lot of time speaking about this because it is self-explanatory. I have moved this motion as well as the bill that I have just introduced to the house because I believe that this is an urgent matter, that is, this state is in a vulnerable situation. As I see it, there has been an admission and a deliberate attempt to split a dual by-election opportunity to try to advantage the government in a particular seat.

In the short time since this occurred, whilst many people were gobsmacked, I have been talking to people and they have asked me, 'What on earth is going on here when you are not having two by-elections on the one day?' I was surprised to see that the Speaker of the day—and I do not attack the current Speaker on this because as the legislation stands at the moment, it does not matter whether it is the Speaker, Mr Atkinson, or whether it is a former Liberal speaker—because of the way the legislation is structured at the moment, ultimately makes the decision on when by-elections will occur. Taking that into account and also thinking about the most recent by-elections, namely Ramsay and Port Adelaide, it is something that the house should condemn.

There has been quite a bit of outcry, and rightly so, I believe, by the media, and concerns have been raised with me by constituents right across the state—and I am sure I am not the only member who has had concerns raised with them—about the fact that an elected representative and most times (not always) the Speaker or indeed, sir, you as President, is a member of a political party. That is the reality of how the parliament works, and there is no problem with that whatsoever. However, the problem is that you are then potentially compromising the decision-making role of that Speaker, and you are also in a situation where a particular party, which would always be the incumbent party (the government), will have the political advantage in a by-election.

By-elections are held for a number of reasons. Tragically and sadly, today both houses spoke to a condolence motion about the fact that we have lost a friend, a colleague and a very good member for Fisher and an incredibly talented, longstanding politician, the Hon. Dr Bob Such. The last thing you need in a tragic situation like that is political one-upmanship or benefit. Secondly, from the point of view of the democratic processes of that by-election, the last thing the people who live in that seat need is having to contend with one party, namely the government, utilising their situation, as it stands at the moment, for the benefit of this particular party. A lot of people take offence to that. If you do not believe me, sir, then have a look at the transcripts in the media, talkback in particular, about what people think about it.

Thinking people believe that the reason you have an independent Electoral Commissioner is to have all the DNA of any decision-making around any influential factors when it comes to a by-election, or any election, and, arguably, that is not the case as the parliament has now structured things. While I give my colleagues a chance to consider the previous bill, I hope all government members, opposition members and crossbenchers will support this motion in the interests of democracy and to expedite the opportunity for the government, through the Speaker, to make an announcement (it is not too late) that there will be two by-elections held on the same day, thereby taking away all the concerns that I have highlighted in the last 20 minutes. It will also put the matter fairly and squarely in the hands of the Electoral Commissioner and give her the opportunity to run these two by-elections together.

I want to finish with two points. I found it very interesting, and some colleagues may or may not have seen this. The first is that the reality is that the Premier defended the decision of the Speaker. I am correct because I watched that closely and thought it was interesting. If there is any independence between the Speaker and the government, why would the Premier be supporting and defending the decisions of the Speaker? That creates quite a lot of innuendo and questioning for sure. That was the first, that is, the Speaker said that Ms Mousley indicated that it was going to be very difficult for her to conduct two by-elections at that time. I gather it was allegedly because she was finishing off work with local government elections.

That was refuted by the Electoral Commissioner, so the next tactic the government used was to say, 'Well, we're not going to save money out of it anyway.' Whilst there may not be a lot of direct savings in having the two by-elections on the one day, the Electoral Commissioner, I understand, ratified the fact that there would be some savings, albeit small, but still savings.

Then we see a situation where we discover that phone calls had been made to the Speaker of the House of Assembly by the Electoral Commissioner advocating both by-elections on the one day, and the phone calls were not returned and in fact were ignored. So, then the Electoral Commissioner had to write to the Speaker and, finally at the end of all that, we allegedly get an admission from the Speaker that, at the end of the day, because of the situation as it stands, it is inherently political, but so be it because the Speaker has that right. Well, the Speaker may have that right, but is it fair and right for those seats facing by-elections? I put it to the Legislative Council that it is not fair and not right and I therefore seek support from this house to call on the Speaker and/or the government, or both, to ensure that both by-elections are held on the same day. I commend the motion to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. G.A. Kandelaars.