

- Title
CONSTITUTION ALTERATION (SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS) BILL 1984
In Committee
- Database
Senate Hansard
- Date
23-08-1984
- Source
Senate
- Parl No.
33
- Electorate
VIC
- Interjector
- Page
321
- Party
ALP
- Presenter
- Status
- Question No.
- Questioner
- Responder
- Speaker
Senator GARETH EVANS
- Stage
- Type
- Context
Bill
- System Id
chamber/hansards/1984-08-23/0128

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-
Hansard
- Start of Business
-
PETITIONS
- Australian Capital Territory: Local Government
- National Flag
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation:Queensland
- Retirement Incomes Policy
- Foreign Military and Intelligence Facilities in Australia
- Pornography
- Pornography
- Pornography
- Pornography
- Pornography
- Proposed Assets Test
- Archbishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
- Woorabinda Aboriginal Reserve: Queensland
- Pornography
- Procedural Text
- REMUNERATION AND ALLOWANCES AMENDMENT BILL 1984 (No. 2)
-
CLOSER ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP: AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
- Notice of Motion
- SUGAR INDUSTRY
- ALICE SPRINGS-DARWIN RAIL LINK
- AVIATION GASOLINE AND TURBINE FUEL
- PRESENTATION OF PAPERS
- PROPOSED EXPENDITURE 1984-85 EXPENDITURE UNDER ADVANCE TO MINISTER FOR FINANCE 1983-84
-
ALIENS ACT REPEAL BILL 1984
- Second Reading
- ESTIMATES COMMITTEES D AND E
-
CONSTITUTION ALTERATION (SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS) BILL 1984
- Second Reading
-
In Committee
- Senator DURACK
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator MACKLIN
- Senator LEWIS
- Senator HARRADINE
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator CRICHTON-BROWNE
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator PETER RAE
- Senator MACKLIN
- Senator GARETH EVANS
- Senator MASON
- Senator PETER RAE
- MATTERS OF PUBLIC INTEREST
-
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
-
TAXATION
(Senator CHANEY, Senator BUTTON) -
SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT
(Senator JONES, Senator RYAN) -
FIRST HOME OWNERS SCHEME
(Senator BJELKE-PETERSEN, Senator GRIMES) -
SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT
(Senator COATES, Senator RYAN) -
DAINTREE RAIN FOREST
(Senator CHIPP, Senator RYAN) -
PRESCRIPTIONS
(Senator HEARN, Senator GRIMES) -
NATIONAL CRIME AUTHORITY
(Senator HAMER, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
TAXATION LEVELS
(Senator COOK, Senator WALSH) -
NUGAN HAND BANK: MR JUSTICE STEWART
(Senator SCOTT, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
VISAS: JAPANESE BUSINESS PEOPLE
(Senator RICHARDSON, Senator GRIMES) -
TERTIARY EDUCATION ASSISTANCE SCHEME
(Senator PETER BAUME, Senator RYAN) -
HOSPITAL BENEFITS FUND
(Senator COLEMAN, Senator GRIMES) -
EXPORT INSPECTION SERVICE
(Senator MACKLIN, Senator WALSH) -
UNEMPLOYMENT
(Senator CROWLEY, Senator BUTTON) -
AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION: DOCUMENTARY
(Senator LEWIS, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
BILL OF RIGHTS
(Senator SIBRAA, Senator GRIMES) -
SERVICE PENSIONS
(Senator WATSON, Senator GIETZELT) -
PERSONAL INCOME TAX CUTS
(Senator FOREMAN, Senator WALSH) -
MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT: ANTI-SEMITISM
(Senator GARETH EVANS) -
BUILDING INDUSTRY: WAGES
(Senator BUTTON)
-
TAXATION
- UNEMPLOYMENT
- PERSONAL INCOME TAX CUTS
- TAXATION LEVELS
- PERSONAL EXPLANATION
- TAXATION: WINE
-
AUSTRALIAN CANNED FRUITS CORPORATION
- Annual Report 1983
- AUSTRALIAN APPLE AND PEAR CORPORATION
-
POULTRY RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
- Report 1981-83
-
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE KAOHSIUNG FISHING BOAT COMMERCIAL GUILD
- Fisheries Agreement
- REMUNERATION TRIBUNAL
-
COMMONWEALTH GRANTS COMMISSION
- Report for 1984 on Financing the Australian Capital Territory
- RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA
-
STANDING COMMITTEE ON INDUSTRY AND TRADE
- Report
- JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
- EVALUATION OF VIETNAM VETERANS COUNSELLING SERVICE
- COMMONWEALTH GRANTS COMMISSION
-
COMMONWEALTH TERTIARY EDUCATION COMMISSION
- Annual Report 1983
-
AUSTRALIAN MARITIME COLLEGE
- Annual Council Report 1983
-
COMMONWEALTH GRANTS COMMISSION
- Report for 1984 on Financing the Australian Capital Territory
- AGED CARE
-
GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES FOR OFFICIAL WITNESSES
- Ministerial Statement
- CONSTITUTION ALTERATION (SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS) BILL 1984
- ADJOURNMENT
Page: 321
Senator GARETH EVANS (Attorney-General)(10.23)
—For the sake of clarification I say that all the Australian Constitutional Convention has decided is to put in something in the language of proposed new sub-section (4) using the language of relative success. What has occurred to people is that the words 'relative success' are potentially ambiguous because it is not just a matter of counting out in terms of the number of votes one receives but also how those votes are counted and the particular quota which is applied. This is the problem that was identified by the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform on a bipartisan basis. The words 'relative success' are themselves ambiguous. Relative success and the method by which it is determined can be resolved by resolution of the Senate as it has been up until now or we can go a step further and enshrine it in legislation.
I think that if we start playing around with the notion of relative success which is contained in proposed new sub-section (4), all we are going to do at this late hour is introduce new complexities into what is by now a reasonably well understood-albeit not by me-situation as to what relative success means and what the different alternatives are. So either way we are not going all the way in this particular constitutional provision to spell it out. We are merely creating a procedure by which it may be determined. The only argument is whether that procedure is resolution of the Senate or legislation. I can appreciate the point that Senator Durack is making but I think it would require more drafting, thought and time than we are capable of putting into it at this late stage of the proceedings.