A form of party-line voting for the ACT Legislative Assembly election is not out of the question, following an all-party meeting of MLAs on the electoral law yesterday.
The Liberal Party and two Independents, Michael Moore and Helen Szuty, are vehemently against any form of party-line voting. However, an alliance of maverick independent Dennis Stevenson and the Labor could result in a de-facto party-list system.
The 1992 referendum voted 70-30 in favour of the Tasmanian Hare-Clark with Robson rotation system. Under Robson rotation there are no party boxes like the Senate. Party candidates are not put in a set order on the ballot paper. The ballot papers are printed in batches. Some batches might have Follett in the No 3 spot with Lamont No 1 and Connolly No 2; other batches have Connolly No 1, Follett No 2 and Wood No 3 and so on. Voters place the candidates in the order they want.
The Government’s first electoral law grafted on a party box to this, so voters could tick a party box and be deemed to have voted for candidates in the order lodged with the Electoral Commission.
It met public outcry because it was against the spirit of the 1992 referendum result and enough Assembly opposition to make its passage unlikely.
At yesterday’s meeting an adviser to Mr Stevenson suggested that voters be given an option of putting a T besides any candidate for a given party and that that vote would then be a party vote and be determined according to the party list registered with the Electoral Commission.
However, the Government is non-committal on it.
Mr Stevenson has apparently issued drafting instructions for the proposal. The matter will have to wait until it hits the floor of the House.
Mr Stevenson said yesterday he would do shopping-centre sampling on his proposal. He said the 1992 result was a fraud. What the people really wanted was Hare-Clark with one electorate of 17 members, but that position had never been put.
The Labor machine has opposed Hare-Clark and Robson rotation, preferring single-member electorates, or if there is Hare-Clark to have a party box so that factional pre-selection deals have meaning.
Mr Moore repeated yesterday his threat to move a motion of no confidence in the Chief Minister if there is any form of party vote whatever. Any “”T ticket” system would be a breach of the 1992 referendum and introducing it would be reprehensible conduct warranting a no-confidence motion, he said.
However, if the amendments were put by Mr Stevenson and got support of the Labor Party they would have a majority.
It became clear from yesterday’s meeting that the proposal for four-year terms was now dead; that public funding and stricter donation-disclosure procedures would go ahead; and the Liberals’ move for a referendum to entrench key elements of the Hare-Clark system would be postponed until after the Government introduced a general referendum-procedure later this year.
The meeting agreed also that people from any electorate would be able to vote anywhere in the ACT without it being a postal vote. Three different colour ballot papers would be used for the three electorates.
Public funding and return of deposit would come in at 2 per cent of the formal vote and new measures to permit counting of the postal vote on election night would be introduced.