The ACT Electoral Commission makes a solid case for changing the date of the ACT’s fixed-term election. At present, under federal law, it is held on the third Saturday in February every third year. This puts the election campaign through the long summer holiday period. Further it means electoral rolls close in mid to late January when many people are out of the territory. And if the election results in a change of government, the new government has little time to settle in before it must produce a budget if that budget is to be as early in the new financial year as possible. Indeed, the Carnell Government felt it had to postpone its first budget.
In short, the electoral commission says the present date is bad for electoral administration, inconvenient for voters and bad for government.
How was such an inconvenient date set? Surely, the federal parliamentarians establishing self-government thought carefully about the clauses of the self-government bills and must have had a reason for setting such a date?
Not a bit of it. There was an unseemly haste to push the ACT off to self-government so its funds could be slashed so the federal purse could be spared this expensive child which had for so long refused to leave home. At the time of self-government there was cross-party agreement on two essential points: that the ACT would have self-government as soon as possible and that it would have to learn to live within standard state-type funding as soon as possible. There was little high idealism about people having a democratic say in their own governance. There was an unseemly squabble among the major parties and minor parties in the Senate about the electoral system, with each jockeying for every slight advantage (however illusory). And so there was no consideration about what an inconvenient date the third Saturday in February is for an election in Australia.
The commission proposes the last Saturday in October as a better date. It suggests that if the federal election were called for that day, the ACT election could be held a week earlier.
Certainly October is better than February, but it is not the optimum time. October, the month or so before it in which the campaign would run and the month after it which a new government would need to settle down are quite productive times. An October election would be needlessly disruptive. It would be better to hold the election in early December, to give a new government the summer break to settle in. The first Saturday in December would be perhaps the best date for fixed-term elections.
The commission referred to the possibility of an ACT election clashing with a federal election and the need for a fall-back date. The Commonwealth Electoral Act provides that a state or territory election cannot be held on the same day as a federal election unless the federal government approves it. It is a silly law. It presumes people are stupid and will confuse federal and state ballot papers. It surely cannot be aimed at avoiding clashing campaigns because there are so many elections in Australia that it would be impossible.
Having a fixed date in December might increase the chance of a clash with a federal poll because 13 of the 37 federal polls have been held in December, the month with greatest frequency. But so what? Indeed, it would be better if all state and federal elections were held on the same day … the first Saturday in December every three years … and the ACT should take the lead.