Court by surprise

12 August 2010GetUp! has scored an unexpected victory in the High Court, giving an extra 100,000 people a chance to vote on 21 August and opening up the debate about the right to vote, writes Graeme Orr in Inside Story

“THE MAJORITY ruling in Rowe’s case has struck down early closing of the roll. Shrewdly, the head of Get Up!’s pro bono legal team, Ron Merkel QC, did not ask the Court to take a step into the unknown, so the Court has not ruled that enrolment cut-off days are entirely unnecessary, as in Canada. Nor has it ruled that in a 24/7 society paper-based enrolment is unreasonable. Instead the law has simply jackpotted back to the pre-Howard rule, dating back to 1983, that electors have seven days’ grace to organise their enrolment.

The immediate effect is that approximately 100,000 enrolments will be processed that otherwise would have lain in abeyance…”

Read the full article

Photo: traffman

Related Topics

Politics

Justice

Social Policy

Related content

Most viewed: This week

1
Smart technologies for older people
2
Legal and governance models for shared services in local government
3
Six provocations for big data
4
Can nations measure well-being?
5
Evidence-free policy making? The case of income management

Noticeboard

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (the ACNC) starting in July 2012
07 March 2012

In May 2011 the Federal Government announced that the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) would commence operations from 1 July 2012 and that it would initially be responsible for determining the legal status of groups seeking charitable, public benevolent institution, and other not-for-profit (NFP) benefits on behalf of all Commonwealth agencies. 

Regulatory Impact Analysis: Benchmarking: new study
01 March 2012


The Productivity Commission has been asked to report within 9 months on Regulatory Impact Analysis: Benchmarking. The study requires a benchmarking of the efficiency and quality of regulatory impact analysis processes used by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments, as well as those of the Council of Australian Governments.
Access and equity inquiry
20 December 2011

On 18 November 2011, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator the Hon Kate Lundy, announced the establishment of an independent panel of eminent community leaders to conduct an inquiry into Australian Government services to ensure they are responsive to the needs of Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Topics

APO