Links to ACT Electoral Legislation

The following links are through the ACT Legislation Register:

• Electoral Act 1992
• Electoral Regulation 1993
• Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1994
• Proportional Representation (Hare-Clark) Entrenchment Act 1994
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Act 2008
• Health Professionals Regulation 2004

The following is a Commonwealth Act, linked through ComLaw, which is the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney General's Department:

• Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988

Most recent Assembly decisions related to electoral legislation

The Surveyors Amendment Act 2010 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 23 February 2010. The Act came into effect on 3 March 2010 after official notification in the ACT's Legislation Register.

This Act made consequential amendments to the redistribution provisions of the Electoral Act to change references to "chief surveyor to "surveyor-general".

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Legislation Amendment Act 2008 (No 2) was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 20 August 2008. Amendments made by this Act to the Electoral Act came into effect on 2 February 2009 after official notification in the ACT's Legislation Register.

This Act made consequential amendments to provisions of the Electoral Act related to the review of decisions, as a consequence of the establishment of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The Electoral Legislation Amendment Act 2008 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 8 May 2008. The Act came into effect on 21 May 2008 after official notification in the ACT's Legislation Register.

The changes made by the Amendment Act include:

• Removing the provision for non-party groups to be listed on ballot papers;
• Reducing all the thresholds for disclosure of political donations and expenditure to $1000 from 1 July 2008, to bring the ACT disclosure scheme into line with proposed changes to the Commonwealth disclosure scheme;
• Allowing electors to apply for postal votes by phone, email, internet, fax or post, without the need for a signature or a witness;
• Providing that an elector is not eligible to apply for a postal vote if they are able to attend at a pre-poll voting centre in the ACT before polling day;
• Simplifying the requirements for authorisation of published electoral material (see factsheet);
• Extending the right to enrol and vote to all ACT prisoners otherwise entitled to enrol (before this change, prisoners under sentence for 3 years or more were not eligible to enrol or vote for ACT elections);
• Providing that an application for registration of a political party that includes the name of a person in the party’s name must include a statement signed by that person indicating the person's consent to the party name;
• Providing that it is an offence to take a photo of a person’s marked ballot paper so as to violate the secrecy of the ballot; and
• A range of other more minor amendments.

This Amendment Act was introduced into the Assembly as the Electoral Legislation Amendment Bill 2007 by the Attorney-General, Simon Corbell MLA, on 23 August 2007. The following accompanying documents give background to the Amendment Act:

• Explanatory statement
• Compatibility statement
• Hansard - Presentation speech

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Act 2008 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 6 May 2008. The Act came into effect on 15 May 2008 after official notification in the ACT's Legislation Register.

The main purpose of this Act is to establish the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. Its goal is to ensure maximum participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the ACT in the formulation, co-ordination and implementation of government policies that affect them. The ACT Electoral Commission is responsible for the conduct of elections for the Elected Body. For more information on this election, see the 2008 ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Election page.

The Electoral Amendment Bill 2003 was passed with amendments by the ACT Legislative Assembly on Saturday 15 May 2004. This Bill was introduced into the Assembly by the Attorney-General, Jon Stanhope MLA, on 8 May 2003. The provisions in this Bill are based on recommendations made in the report, The 2001 ACT Legislative Assembly Election: Review of the Electoral Act 1992 (pdf 1623 kb). These changes came into effect on 22 May 2004 when officially notified in the ACT's Legislation Register.

The changes from the Bill passed by the Legislative Assembly include:

• Requiring applications to register a party or to change a party's registered name or abbreviation to be lodged by 30 June in an election year;
• Requiring that parties have 100 members at the time that an application is lodged to register the party;
• Changes to postal voting procedures;
• Preventing the Electoral Commissioner from taking part in the review by the Electoral Commission of a decision not to conduct a recount of ballot papers; and
• Bringing all the thresholds for disclosure of political donations and expenditure up to $1500, to remove inconsistencies in the current disclosure scheme.

The amendments made to the Bill and passed by the Assembly:

• Retain non-party groups in the Electoral Act;
• Remove from the Electoral Act all references to the ability of independent MLAs to register ballot groups; and
• Provide that it will be an offence to induce a person to complete a postal vote application form and return it to an address other than that authorised by the Electoral Commissioner.

The Electoral Amendment Regulations 2004 (No 1) were notified under the Legislation Act 2001 on 16 February 2004. These amendments to the Electoral Regulation 1993 were intended to provide that publications of ACT government agencies that contained the "building our city, building our community" logo would not be required to include an electoral authorisation statement if the publications included electoral matter. On Thursday 11 March 2004 the ACT Legislative Assembly passed a resolution that the Electoral Amendment Regulations 2004 (No 1) be disallowed. The amendment regulations were taken to be repealed on Thursday 18 March 2004 because of the resolution.

The Electoral Amendment Bill 2003 (No 2) was introduced into the Assembly by the Attorney-General, Jon Stanhope MLA, on 20 November 2003 and was passed as the Electoral Amendment Act 2003 in the Assembly on 27 November 2003. This legislation extends the term of office for Members of the Legislative Assembly from three years to four years, starting from the 2004 election. This change follows a recommendation from the ACT Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, to which the ACT Electoral Commission made a submission.

The Attorney-General, Jon Stanhope, introduced the Electoral Amendment Bill 2002 (No 2) on 29 August 2002. The Bill was passed as the Electoral Amendment Act 2002 in the Assembly on 24 September 2002. This legislation deferred the start of the next redistribution of electoral boundaries until after 30 April 2003.

The following Government bills were tabled in the Assembly on 29 March 2001. These bills were passed, with amendments, on 15 June 2001. This legislation made a number of changes, including increasing the number of Robson rotations and changing enrolment, nomination, party registration and disclosure provisions.

Electoral Amendment Bill 2001

• Bill as introduced into the Assembly (pdf 192 kb)
• Explanatory Memorandum (pdf 45 kb)
• Presentation Speech (pdf 15 kb)
• Act as passed by the Assembly

Electoral Amendment Bill 2001 (No 2)

• Bill as introduced into the Assembly (pdf 9 kb)
• Explanatory Memorandum (pdf 11 kb)
• Presentation Speech (pdf 8 kb)
• Act as passed by the Assembly

Electoral (Entrenched Provisions) Amendment Bill 2001

• Bill as introduced into the Assembly (pdf 30 kb)
• Explanatory Memorandum (pdf 12 kb)
• Presentation Speech (pdf 11 kb)
• Act as passed by the Assembly