Statutes Amendment Bill

Members, we come now to Part 15. Part 15 is the debate on clauses 66 and 67, “Amendments to Electoral Act 1993”. The question is that Part 15 stand part.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I find this one a little bit tricky, and I just really want to be sure that we’re not doing something we don’t want to do. The amendment to section 3(1) in clause 67 sets out the definition of “candidate” in the Electoral Act. In general, it makes it that “candidate” includes a constituency candidate and a list candidate, and, if I’ve got this right, what this does is it distinguishes constituency candidates and list candidates for certain purposes set out originally in Part 6AA and Part 6A of the Electoral Act, but it appears now to say that list candidates are not candidates for the purposes of Part 6B, as well. Part 6B is about the provisions relating to loans and the obligation to disclose loans, and section 214BA makes it clear that candidates must keep records of loans.

I’m not entirely clear as to why list candidates, and I presume it’s list-only candidates, because if you’re a—although if you’re a list candidate and a constituency candidate, could you say, “I’m having a loan for my list candidacy but not my constituency candidacy.”? I don’t know. But are we carving out list candidates from all of the regulation around loans, and, if not, what exactly are we doing with this particular section, because if we are carving list candidates out—and I can see that the Minister is getting some advice there—that would be really, really useful to know.

My advice says that it is “Consequential only. No policy change.”, but I’ll give you a bit more, Dr Webb. We’re amending the definition of “candidate” to include a reference to Part 6B. This is a consequential amendment to ensure consistency with the new candidate loan provisions added into Part 6B of the Act by the Electoral Amendment Act 2022. Part 6B was updated previously, and this update amends the definition to reflect those updates. So it is consequential only, and, as my advisers have just told me, there is no policy change.

Part 15 agreed to.

Part 16 Amendment to Employment Relations Act 2000