Bills Digest no. 87 1976-77
Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 1977
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced
and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have
any official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine
the subsequent official status of the Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Summary
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Passage History
Commonwealth
Electoral Amendment Bill 1977
Date introduced: 23 February 1977
House: House of Representatives
Purpose
The Bill has two purposes. The first is
to ensure that redistributions required as a result of a changed number
of seats for a State because of a determination under the Representation
Act 1905, will be commenced as speedily as possible and, that if
such redistributions are not proclaimed before the next ordinary general
election, the State will vote as one electorate. The other purpose is
to ensure that electorates with a very large area do not contain more
electors than smaller electorates.
Background
(1) The current amendments to the Representation
Bill 1905 require an ordinary general election to be held, in any
State, for the correct number of seats as most recently determined.
An ordinary general election is defined as one at or towards the end
of the three years of a normal House of Representatives. This conforms
to the decision in McKinlay’s case (50 ALJR 279).
(2) In 1974 when section 19 of the Commonwealth
Electoral Act 1918 was amended to alter the permissible departure
from the quota from 20% to 10%, amendments were also passed removing
from the criteria required to be considered by the Distribution Commissioners,
ones relating to area and sparsity of population, which had effectively
required the creation of country seats with far fewer electors than
city seats, because of the greater size of the country seats. When the
amendment was made, no provision was included to ensure that, in addition
to a greater area, country seats did not also contain larger numbers
of electors than smaller city seats.
Summary
The Bill amends the Commonwealth Electoral
Act 1918.
(1) Amendments relating to McKinlay’s
case.
The main amendments are to sections 24 and
25 and the insertion of a new section 25A.
Clause 10 amends section 25 so that when
a determination of the number of seats in a State shows a change, a
redistribution must be initiated immediately (new section 25 (2) (a)
). The existing occasions when a redistribution may be initiated
are repeated in new section 25 (2) (b) but new sub-section (4) provides
a new limitation, in that a redistribution on the grounds of an imbalance
between numbers of electors in divisions may only be initiated if no
other redistribution has occurred in that State for seven years.
Section 24 is amended by clause 9 so that
the Governor-General must proclaim new divisions as soon as practicable
after they receive Parliamentary approval and whether or not the House
of Representatives has since expired or been
dissolved.
The amendment to the proviso by clause 9
(b) is consequential on the new section 25A which provides that by-elections
after an election at large are also held at large. Section 24 (1) currently
provides in the proviso that by-elections are always held on the boundaries
in force at the general election date.
Clause 11 inserts new section 25A to provide
that “ordinary general elections” (as defined in the Representation
Act 1905 as proposed to be amended), where the State is not distributed
into the correct number of divisions to correspond with the latest determination
of the number of seats, must be held at large (new sub-section 25(1)).
New sub-section 25 (2) provides that a by-election
following an election at large will also be at large.
Clause 5 amends section 16 so that the Governor-General
must appoint Distribution Commissioners when they are needed.
Clause 6 amends section 18A so that the
Distribution Commissioners commence their task “as soon as practicable
after they have been appointed”.
Clause 8 amends section 23 to permit some
period for the Distribution Commissioners to consider suggestions and
objections to their proposals. The section now requires them to report
immediately the period for making such suggestions or objections is
over. They will now be required to do so as soon as practicable.
(2) Amendments relating to size of electorates.
Clause 7 inserts two new sub-sections in
section 19 with the effect that on a proposed redistribution no division
of less than 5,000 square kilometres may contain fewer electors than
any division of 5,000 square kilometres or more.
Law and Government Group
23 February 1977
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2006
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