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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 (14:57): Supplementary: is the minister saying that the voting now will commence on 25 March, and by 26 March he is indicating that we will have results?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:57): I am not indicating that at all. I think that is completely misunderstood. If my memory serves me correctly, I think the legislation provides for a declaration up to 10 days after the voting, so that would take it, I think, up to about 26 March. I am not exactly sure, but I suspect that, if the Electoral Commissioner is in a position to announce votes before then, he will do that.

Of course, the Electoral Commissioner can't really even start counting until the number of all votes are known, and with postal votes still coming in you can't do that. The system for voting is a PR-type voting system, similar to that used in the Legislative Council and the Senate. It would be foolish to start counting because you would need the number of votes to work out what is a quota.

I am sure the honourable member wouldn't want the Electoral Commissioner to start counting in a faulty way and make a faulty vote count, but as soon as the close-off time for postal votes occurs and they are counted—because I know the honourable member will be very interested and many members of her own party have said they look forward to supporting the Voice and making sure it is a success—I look forward to working with the honourable member to make sure that the South Australian First Nations Voice is the success that it deserves to be.

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