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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-19 Daily Xml
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First Nations Voice Elections

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (14:53): I seek leave to provide a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding the recent State Voice elections.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: In part 6, section 14 of the First Nations Voice Act 2023, it states:

14—Provisional declarations

When the result of the election becomes apparent, the returning officer must make a provisional declaration of the result.

The Electoral Commission of South Australia, without explanation, has delayed the count and therefore the declaration to not occur until after the vote count commences on Monday 25 March 2024, more than a week after the polls have closed. My question to the Attorney is: why hasn't the Electoral Commissioner explained why the results wouldn't be known until well after 25 March, given, as the minister himself noted, that a smaller turnout is expected for the first vote?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for her question. As I previously noted in this place, I think it can be expected, as regularly happens the first time you do something new, that there will be a turnout that I suspect will be smaller for the first election and will be built on in future elections. I note that was the case the last time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander South Australians had a body to vote for in South Australia during the 1990s. I think it was about 1990 that we had the first election for ATSIC, with four elections and the final one being in either 1998 or 1999.

In those elections—and I don't have the figures in front of me—I think the first election had a fraction over 2,000 people voting, and it gradually built to somewhere in the mid to high 2,000s with each of those ATSIC elections. I suspect that fatigue and disappointment from the referendum we had in October will also play a part in some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people not yet engaging in this process, but I am sure they will in future years. I don't have final figures, but I am sure they will be published once they are known in terms of voter turnout.

I think the requirement is for, if my memory serves me correctly, 10 days after the election for the declaration of those who have been elected, which I think takes it up to about 26 March. The substance of the honourable member's question is: why don't we know the results already? I believe—and I am happy to check to see if I am wrong—the very simple answer to that is that postal votes are still coming in. The postal votes that were applied for have been sent off.

Again, I will check, but I think postal votes can be received until the end of this week. I believe the Electoral Commissioner is waiting to receive those postal votes before making the final count. On what won't be huge numbers, on ATSIC standards from last time we had these sorts of elections, a couple of thousand votes—to purport to complete a vote before you have all votes in I am sure the honourable member wouldn't agree with.

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