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The Convention is Now On
(7th February, 1998) (13th February, 1998) (23rd February, 1998) (8th November, 1977) (11th March, 1977) THE LEAD UP TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONAfter the Senate having rejected the Constitutional Convention (Election) Bill on the 18th June 1997 and again on the 24th June 1997. The bill was resubmitted to Parliament on the 24th August 1997, where it was ultimately passed on the 28th August 1997 with Senators Bob Brown and Brian Harradine supporting the bill. Details to hand are: Date of the Convention: Planned for the first half of 1998.
No debate upon any other constitutional issue will be included. The composition of the Convention: The convention will comprise a total of 152 delegates, of which 76 have been appointed by the Federal and State Governments and 76 are planned to be directly elected as follows: The Appointed Delegates On the 31st August 1997 the Government had announced the appointment of the 36 non-parliamentary delegates to be to the Constitutional Convention. The Government had earlier announced the appointment of the Rt. Hon. Ian Sinclair as Chairman and the Hon. Barry Jones as Deputy Chairman. The appointment is in accordance with the earlier advised composition as follows: Federal - Coalition MPs = 12 The following is a schedule of the appointed delegates: Stella Axarlis (Vic) The following is a schedule of the Parliamentary appointments: Federal - Coalition MPs = 12 4 Liberal backbenchers chosen (names not yet released) Federal - Labor MPs = 6 Delegates not yet named New South Wales = 3 Bob Carr (Premier) Queensland = 3 Rob Borbidge (Premier) South Australia = 3 John Olsen (Premier) Tasmania = 3 Tony Rundle (Premier) Victoria = 3 Jeff Kennett (Premier) Western Australia = 3 Australian Capital Territory = 1 Northern Territory = 1 Local Government Appointments = 2 The Elected Delegates Australian citizens 18 years and over who are eligible to vote in House of Representatives elections may stand for election, except for currently serving elected representatives at national, state or local government levels. A non-refundable deposit of $500 will be required to stand for election. The number of delegates to be elected by each State are as follows: New South Wales = 20 The Voting Date: Probably ballot papers will be sent out in November 1997 with voting completed by December 1997. Method of Voting: Elected delegates will be chosen by a national voluntary postal vote with Delegates elected by a modified Senate proportional voting system. Each State in Australia will form one electorate and will return delegates approximately in proportion to the number of seats represented in the House of Representatives. The ballot paper is planned to be similar in style to Senate ballot papers, with "above the line" or "below the line" voting. In "above the line"voting, electors may choose to vote for one candidate grouping, and preferences will be distributed in accordance with that group's preference ticket. Only the name of the first candidate will be placed next to the Group name. In "below the line" voting, electors will be required to indicate their candidate preference for a specific number of individual candidates. The number of preference positions available will be equal to the number of delegate positions allocated for that State, or nine positions, whichever is larger. This means that 20 preference positions would be available on NSW ballots, 16 on Victorian ballots, 13 on Queensland ballots, and 9 on the ballot papers for all other states and territories. These preferences would have to be indicated by electors consulting an accompanying booklet of candidates names, and entering thatcandidate's number next to the desired preference position on the ballot paper. The presence of "above the line" voting means that major groups will need to negotiate with other groups to distribute preferences. Supporting material will be provided with the ballot paper summarising the issues and the positions of groups and candidates. It is currently planned to issue this material in English only. The Monarchist League in Australia back to top of page |
