Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In 2½ half minutes it was not a bad summary, I thought!

My recollection—and the minister will obviously have advice on this—is the act itself prescribes a ballot paper. What this amendment seeks to do is to not change the commencement date of the act but to say—by way of the insertion of application provisions—that this bit does not apply in relation to any election whose polling day is before 1 July 2016. So my first question is about that inconsistency, and I think Senator Collins pointed to that too. I want to understand: what is the legal position and the validity of that? Are there any legal concerns arising out of the inconsistency between commencement and application? They are the first set of questions. Can you talk about the legal validity or the legal consequences of that? I had already flagged that I would be seeking for the minister to table any legal advice the government has obtained in relation to that. The second is a practical question, and I can pause if the minister wants to respond to the first question?