Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan is proposing reforms to Council by-elections due to low voter turn out

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NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan is proposing reforms to Council by-elections due to low voter turn out · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio to tell us a
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: little bit more about how it all went. Is the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner in Logan, Nathan. Good morning to you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Ian, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously another by election on the weekend, the waters
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  Speaker 1: Ward by election, and it does look as though Kim
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  Speaker 1: Farrer is out in front three thousand and eight votes
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  Speaker 1: leading Gary Haslett and Robin Lawrence. That was as of
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  Speaker 1: counting on Saturday night. How is that counting going? Is
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  Speaker 1: it all done?
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  Speaker 2: And dust it?
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  Speaker 3: What happens today, Katie, is that we recheck all the
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  Speaker 3: votes that were counted on Saturday. As you know, people
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  Speaker 3: have worked all day and then they're counting at night.
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  Speaker 3: Mistakes happen, so they rechecked today and then at the
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  Speaker 3: end of the week we will just count the postals
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  Speaker 3: that have been received during the week. But as you
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  Speaker 3: said before, Kim Farrer is in front by a significant margin.
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  Speaker 1: Now it looks as though once again a pretty low
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  Speaker 1: voter turnout was it.
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  Speaker 3: Look at the moment it's a it's forty eight point
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  Speaker 3: three percent. It'll go up slightly as we get a
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  Speaker 3: few more additional postal votes. Probably somewhere around fifty percent,
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  Speaker 3: which is Look, it's pretty similar to what we had
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  Speaker 3: in the lines Ward when we ran there by election
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  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty at about fifty two percent.
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  Speaker 2: But really it's nothing to celebrate.
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  Speaker 3: If we're struggling to get half the people to turn
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  Speaker 3: up at the at the voting centers, then look at
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  Speaker 3: certainly we really need to have a think about some
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  Speaker 3: other possibilities. We have been doing some work looking at
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  Speaker 3: what other jurisdictions do, and you know, and they really
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  Speaker 3: had a look at, you know, what are the options
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  Speaker 3: besides by elections for local government. And you know in
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  Speaker 3: New South Wales and in Tasmania, in Victoria and in
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  Speaker 3: Queensland they do have like a partial countback system. So
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  Speaker 3: that means that you don't have to go to a
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  Speaker 3: by election if you know, if the council basically agrees
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  Speaker 3: at the start of their term that look what we
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  Speaker 3: will do is will we will use a countback system. Look,
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot to digest here.
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  Speaker 1: So what would that mean that you don't then have
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  Speaker 1: a by election. Whoever was sort of you know, just
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  Speaker 1: missed out at the most recent election, they'd end up
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  Speaker 1: getting the spot.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that's like, that's the options that's used in Queensland.
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  Speaker 2: What they say is that you have the option for
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  Speaker 2: the first twelve.
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  Speaker 3: Months of a new council and then after that you
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  Speaker 3: need to go to a by election. What we have
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  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory is that in the last eighteen
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  Speaker 3: months before a general election you don't have to go
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  Speaker 3: to a by election.
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  Speaker 2: Councils have that option.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a whole lot of things to consider here
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  Speaker 3: in terms of it, and certainly we would have to
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  Speaker 3: have discussions with Legant, we would have to have discussions
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  Speaker 3: with councils and you know, what's important to remember it's
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  Speaker 3: Parliament that makes electoral law, not the Electoral Mision. But
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  Speaker 3: certainly these are things that we are pondering, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: we have the option to put options to the government
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  Speaker 3: about possible reforms in this area.
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  Speaker 1: And so you pretty disappointed, you know, as the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territories Electoral Commissioner, are you pretty disappointed by the weekends turnouts?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I mean the answer to your question is yes,
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  Speaker 3: but probably more disappointing. Part of that answer is probably
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  Speaker 3: it was what was expected in terms of what we've
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  Speaker 3: seen in recent trends. Probably it was more disappointed with
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  Speaker 3: Fanny Bay, given the fact that that was a high
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  Speaker 3: profile territory by election and that certainly caught us by surprise.
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  Speaker 3: We certainly expected to turn out much higher there. But
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  Speaker 3: certainly I think there needs to be a good hard
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  Speaker 3: look in relation to local government and you know, what
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  Speaker 3: are the possible options that really could be considered and.
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  Speaker 1: So in from your perspective, now what work will you
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  Speaker 1: get underway with. Obviously you're already taking a look at
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  Speaker 1: what they're doing in other states, So what are you
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  Speaker 1: going to do. You'll sort of review this and put
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  Speaker 1: some options together for the GANT and also for the government.
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  Speaker 3: Look, you look, absolutely we'd be working with Legant in
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  Speaker 3: terms of what options that that their members would would support.
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  Speaker 3: And then and then and then exactly right, you know
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  Speaker 3: that there would be a paper that would would go
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  Speaker 3: to the government and and and ultimately possible reforms to
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  Speaker 3: the Local Government Act that would be considered by Parliament.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, we've got well, you know, three years
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  Speaker 3: to the next local government election, so there is time
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  Speaker 3: to look in this area and and and and consider options,
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  Speaker 3: you know, consider other options. It gets a little bit
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  Speaker 3: more complicated with the regional councils because you don't really
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  Speaker 3: have too many people nominating in those areas, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: countbacks may be more difficult there. And you know, these
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  Speaker 3: are certainly areas where you just can't look at the
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  Speaker 3: municipals and and say right, that's the solution for everybody
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  Speaker 3: in terms that you know, the regional councils have different
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  Speaker 3: issues and we we'd have to sit down with their
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  Speaker 3: representatives and legans in terms of what are the options
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  Speaker 3: there now.
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  Speaker 1: So do you think that you could be in a
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  Speaker 1: position where you are sort of presenting those options to
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  Speaker 1: the Parliament and and making some changes in this space.
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  Speaker 2: Look, we write a report after each.
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  Speaker 3: Local government election and certainly we'd be looking to canvass
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  Speaker 3: this issues there. And you know, like I said, there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of work to do beforehand, which is to
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  Speaker 3: have discussions with Legan And you know we've already started
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  Speaker 3: having those discussions in because you know this is this
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  Speaker 3: isn't just an issue in relation to waters Ward. You
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  Speaker 3: know this has been an issue for some time and
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  Speaker 3: particularly an issue at regional councils.
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  Speaker 2: So and you know, and you know that's.
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  Speaker 3: The that's the first step and basically sort of see
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  Speaker 3: what councils think, and I think what's really important in
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  Speaker 3: these possible options is that that council's ultimately decide, you know,
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  Speaker 3: that they decide at their first meeting whether this is
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  Speaker 3: for them or not for them, because we certainly don't
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  Speaker 3: want to take away their rights. But then on the
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  Speaker 3: other hand, a Katie is the electoral commissioner, you know,
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  Speaker 3: not really keen to erode democratic rights. So you know
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  Speaker 3: that that really has to be balanced.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly does, and you know this is I guess
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  Speaker 1: this is the really frustrating partner. The thing that I
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  Speaker 1: always think to myself is I get that people are
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  Speaker 1: maybe frustrated that there's not a candidate that they want
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  Speaker 1: to vote for, or that you know, they may be
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  Speaker 1: frustrated by whatever is going on politically. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: in other countries, people die for the right to vote.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what I can't wrap my head around that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we're actually we live in such a lucky
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  Speaker 1: country where we've got the opportunity to have our voices heard.
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  Speaker 1: You know, there are countries where women still can't vote.
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  Speaker 2: I struggle with it.
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  Speaker 1: I grapple with it because I think, no matter how
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  Speaker 1: frustrated you might be it's something that you know that
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  Speaker 1: we should all be doing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's certainly an issue that I have pondered, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I think a lot of it comes
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  Speaker 3: to the history of Australia where we never really fought
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  Speaker 3: for our independence, right, so sometimes we're pretty laid back
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  Speaker 3: nation and we kind of take all these things for
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  Speaker 3: for granted. So look, you know, my message to territories
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  Speaker 3: has always been to value your vote, you know, make
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  Speaker 3: sure that you exercise it and that you do it
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  Speaker 3: in an informed way. You know, that certainly hasn't changed.
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  Speaker 3: But in relation to local government, Look, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: understand that you know, there's there's been quite a few elections,
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  Speaker 3: right and and and there might be a little bit
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  Speaker 3: of apathy. But but the other hand, in relation to
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  Speaker 3: if you don't know who's who's who are the candidates
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  Speaker 3: are on the ballot paper, you know, we have the internet, right,
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  Speaker 3: certainly you can find out a little bit of information
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  Speaker 3: about them. And look, ultimately, democracies that you make a
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  Speaker 3: choice of the people in front of you, and those
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  Speaker 3: people have put up their hands, and you know, and
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  Speaker 3: your obligation as a territorian is to cast your vote
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  Speaker 3: and that's how democracy works, right, But it doesn't mean
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  Speaker 3: it can't be tinking around the edges as long as
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  Speaker 3: you know that we don't erode the rights of territories
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  Speaker 3: because we know that they take that.
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  Speaker 2: You know they understand the importance of that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Ian, before I let you go, just very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: So the process now for this by election. Obviously there
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a recheck of the count today
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  Speaker 1: and then you know when will we sort of have
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  Speaker 1: that final count.
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  Speaker 3: Look, what you will have is you want to have
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  Speaker 3: a final count until all the postal votes are in
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  Speaker 3: and that's not going to be for a fortnight, So
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  Speaker 3: that's when we'll have the final figures. But it's very
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  Speaker 3: clear on the result, on the numbers, what the result
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  Speaker 3: is going to be. And then we'll just work with
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  Speaker 3: the City of Darwin to have a declaration for Kim
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  Speaker 3: Farah to be declared the winner of that election. What
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  Speaker 3: I also should say in relation to Fanny Bay is
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  Speaker 3: that we'll be returning the writ today to the administrator
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  Speaker 3: because the number of outstanding postal votes can't change the result.
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  Speaker 3: With Parliament sitting tomorrow, just makes sense that the rit
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  Speaker 3: gets returned to today and mister Potter can represent the
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  Speaker 3: Division of Fanny Bay in Parliament this week.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so that will get returned to the administrator today.
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  Speaker 2: That's correct.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Ian Logan Nathan, the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner. I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning, Thanks so much for coming
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  Speaker 1: in and having a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie,