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House of Representatives                                Ch 5                                                 p 152

Resignation

A Member may resign his or her seat in the House by writing to the Speaker or, if there is no Speaker or if the Speaker is absent from the Commonwealth, to the Governor-General. ¹ The resignation takes effect and the Member’s seat becomes vacant from the time the letter of resignation is received by the Speaker or the Governor-General. The Member cannot specify a future time for the resignation to take effect. ² To be effective a resignation must be in writing, signed by the Member who wishes to resign, and be received by the Speaker.

The receipt by the Speaker of a facsimile of a Member’s letter of resignation, the Speaker having satisfied himself as to the authenticity of the facsimile by telephone contact with the Clerk who had the original copy of the letter in Canberra, has been held to comply with these requirements. ³ A resignation by telegram was held not to be effective. ⁴

A resignation that is in writing signed by another person at the direction of the Member, where the Member is physically unable to sign the resignation personally but is mentally capable of understanding the nature of the resignation and of authorising that other person to sign it on his or her behalf, would meet the constitutional requirements regarding resignation, provided these facts are able to be established satisfactorily. However, it has been considered that strict signature should be insisted upon whenever possible in view of the importance of the question, and legal advice should be sought in specific cases if the matter arises in practice. ⁵

Constitution, s. 37. See VP 1980-83/77 for examples of both methods.

Advice of Attorney-General’s Department, dated 19 May 1964.

Advice of Attorney-General’s Department, dated 4 March 1981.

Advice of Attorney-General’s Department, dated 26 February and 9 March 1960.

Opinion of Attorney-General, dated 3 August 1977.