Upper house push for election inquiry

Matt Maloney | Examiner Newspaper | June 29, 2021  

The Legislative Council has voted in favour of forming a joint select committee to review the administration and conduct of the May lower and upper house elections.

But the government is likely to quash the inquiry when the motion is debated in the House of Assembly, voicing strong opposition to the proposal during Tuesday’s upper house debate.

Nelson independent MLC Meg Webb brought on a motion to establish an inquiry with terms of reference that required all aspects of both elections

She said she expected the circumstances around an early House of Assembly election and the decision to hold it on the same date as Legislative Council elections in Windermere and Derwent would be raised.

“This decision to hold concurrent elections for the first time in our state’s history is in and of itself a compelling reason to establish the joint select committee posed in this motion to undertake an election inquiry and review to ascertain the ramifications and impact of this historic first,” Ms Webb said.

“It is important to understand and learn from what transpired as a result of holding concurrent elections of both houses of Parliament.”

Leader of Government Business in the Legislative Council, Leonie Hiscutt, said the government opposed an inquiry.

She said the proposal would replicate and duplicate the role of the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

Ms Hiscutt said Ms Webb’s motion appeared to be politically motivated.

She said the rationale for an early election was extensively debated during the campaign and voters were able to voice their opinion on the subject at the polls.

Labor’s Sarah Lovell said the party supported an inquiry.

She said most Parliaments in other Australian jurisdictions either had ongoing post-election parliamentary reviews or had done so in the past.

“So to me, what it being proposed by the member here is not out of the ordinary, it’s not unreasonable, it’s certainly not inconsistent with what happens in other parliaments across the country,” Ms Lovell said.

Ms Webb said there was no political motivation on her part.

“The government is once again exposing their glass jaw in relation to this issue,” she said.

“If this government had any guts, it would do what its counterparts at a federal and state level do as a matter of course.”

The motion has been sent to the lower house for consideration where it is likely to be defeated when debated.

Read Meg’s Motion calling for a Joint Select Committee