Provisions under the Act

A Summary of the Provisions under Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995

Under the Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995, if a period of 9 years has elapsed since the appointment of the previous Committee, the Electoral Commissioner must recommend to the Minister that the Committee and Tribunal be reappointed. This recommendation must be made by October 2016 given that the previous Committee was appointed on 17 October 2007.

Under section 5 of the Act, the Redistribution Committee consists of 3 members:

• the Electoral Commissioner (Committee chairperson);
• the Surveyor-General (or alternative member); and
• a person nominated by the Australian Statistician (or alternative member).

The role of the Committee is to develop an initial redistribution proposal, taking into account the priorities and matters outlined in section 13(2) and (3). Essentially these priorities and matters are that:

• each division’s predicted enrolment for four and a half years time are within 10% of the average Council division enrolment,
• new boundaries take into account community of interest, local travel within the division and other natural and electoral boundaries.

The initial proposal is published under section 15 of the Act and there is a 28 day period in which a person or organisation may lodge with the Tribunal a comment, suggestion or objection.

The Tribunal, under section 6 of the Act, consists of:

• the members of the Committee;
• the Electoral Commission Chairperson (Tribunal chairperson); and
• the Electoral Commission Member.

The role of the Tribunal is to consider initial objections and hold an inquiry into any reasonable initial objection. Further, the Tribunal is required to make a further redistribution proposal for the State, invite and consider objections, and then make a final determination.