1077 Senator Madigan: To move—That the following bill be
introduced: A Bill for an Act to enable the citizens of Australia to initiate
the holding of a referendum in relation to altering the Constitution, and for
related purposes. Citizen
Initiated Referendum Bill 2013.
*1078 Senator Madigan: To move—That the following bill be
introduced: A Bill for an Act to enable the citizens of Australia to initiate
the holding of a plebiscite in relation to the introduction of legislation into
the Federal Parliament, and for related purposes. Citizen Initiated Legislation
(Plebiscite) Bill 2013.
The two
Bills will be formally introduced into the Senate by Senator Madigan in
February 2013. They will more than likely be sent to the Legal and
Constitutional Affairs Committee for an inquiry and public hearing. I thought I
should alert you and your members to the introduction of these Bills.
An Act to enable
the electors of South Australia to initiate referendums on new laws, or the repeal or amendment of existing laws,
and to approve or disapprove such proposed laws at a referendum.
Contents
Part
1—Preliminary
1 Short title
2 Commencement
3 Interpretation
Part
2—Initiation of referendums by petition
Division
1—Commencement of petitions
4 Initiation of referendums by electors
5 Petition details
6 Submission of petition to Electoral Commissioner
7 Registration of petition
8 Preparation of statement to accompany petition
9 Availability of copy of petition etc
Division
2—Electoral officials
10 Local electoral officials
Division
3—Signatories to petition
11 Signatories to petition
12 Particulars of signatories to petition
13 Counting arrangements
Division
4—Qualification of petition for submission of proposed law to electors
14 Closing date
15 Number of electors required to sign petition to qualify for
referendum
16 Certificate of qualification
17 Drafting of proposed law
18 Tabling of petition
19 Drafting of ballot papers
20 Bills to be submitted to the referendum
Part
3—Referendum
21 Date of referendum
22 Conduct of referendum
23 Entitlement to vote
24 Declaration of result of referendum
25 Approval by electors
Part
4—Advertising
26 Printing and publication of CIR advertisements, notices etc
27 Misleading advertising
28 Heading to advertisements
29 Published material to identify person responsible for content
30 Evidence
Part
5—Miscellaneous
31 General ability to withdraw petition
32 Effect of approved law
33 Offences relating to petitions
34 Application to Supreme Court to restrain breach
35 Regulations
Schedule
1—Entrenchment
1 Entrenchment
2 Referendum requirements
3 Electoral Commissioner to conduct referendum
4 Publication of result
5 Presentation of Bill to Governor
The
Parliament of South Australia enacts as follows:
Part
1—Preliminary
1—Short
title
This Act may be
cited as the Direct Democracy (Citizen-Initiated Referendums) Act
20.
2—Commencement
This Act will come
into operation 50 days after it is assented to by the Governor.
3—Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—
CIR advertisement means
an advertisement containing CIR matter;
CIR matter means
matter calculated—
(a) to influence members of the public to
sign, or not to sign, a registered petition
under this Act; or
(b) to affect the result of a referendum of a
proposed law under this Act;
Electoral
Commissioner includes a person for the time being acting in the
office of
the Electoral
Commissioner under the Electoral Act 1985;
elector means a
person whose name appears as an elector on an electoral roll kept
under the Electoral
Act 1985 for House of Assembly elections (not being a person
under the age of 18
years who is provisionally enrolled), and includes a person whose
name should appear
on such a roll as an elector but has, by error, been omitted from
the roll;
House of Assembly
electoral district, electoral district or district
means a district for
the return of a
member of the House of Assembly;
local electoral official—see
section 10;
Parliamentary
Counsel includes a person for the time being acting in the
office of the
Parliamentary
Counsel;
petition means a
petition for a referendum under this Act;
petitioner in
relation to a petition, means a signatory to a petition who is duly
nominated or
appointed under section 6 as a petitioner in relation to the petition;
President means
the President of the Legislative Council;
proposed law means
any law within the legislative powers of the Parliament
of South Australia;
to publish
includes to authorise, cause or permit to be published;
qualified petition means a
petition for which a certificate of qualification has been
issued by the
Electoral Commissioner under section 17(3);
registered petition means a
petition registered by the Electoral Commissioner under
this Act;
referendum means a
referendum on a proposed law conducted under and in
accordance with
this Act;
Speaker means
the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Part
2—Initiation of referendums by petition
Division
1—Commencement of petitions
4—Initiation
of referendums by electors
Electors have the
right to initiate referendums on proposed laws by petition in
accordance with the
provisions of this Act.
5—Petition
details
(1) A petition is to be addressed to the President and the Speaker
and request that a
referendum be held
on the proposed law.
(2) A petition must have a title and contain a
prose description of the proposed law in not more than 100 words.
(3) The title and description of the proposed
law must not be misleading.
(4) The petition may be accompanied by written
material in support of the petition.
(5) Any such supporting material may contain
arguments in support of the proposed law.
(6) The petition, the summary and supporting
material are to be framed so as to be clearly
intelligible, and
must not have an ambiguous meaning.
(7) The petition must comply with any other
requirement determined by the Electoral
Commissioner and
published in the Gazette for the purposes of this section.
6—Submission
of petition to Electoral Commissioner
(1) A petition prepared for the purposes of
this Act must be submitted to the Electoral
Commissioner for
registration.
(2) A petition submitted to the Electoral Commissioner
for registration—
(a) must be signed by not less than 250
persons each of whom was an elector at
the time he or she
signed the petition; and
(b) must nominate between 5 and 15 signatories
(inclusive) to the petition to be
the petitioners in
relation to the petition for the purposes of this Act; and
(c) must be accompanied by a lodgement fee of
$5 000.
(c)(1) Any petition
lodged within ten years of a substantially similar petition must be accompanied
by a lodgement fee of $10 000.
(d) must comply with any other requirement
prescribed by the regulations.
(3) Only electors who sign a petition within
100 days before the date of delivery of the petition to the Electoral Commissioner
are to be taken into account for the purposes of subsection (2).
(4) A signatory to a petition may, by
instrument in writing signed by a majority of the
existing
petitioners, be appointed as an additional petitioner or to replace a petitioner
who has resigned or
died (but the number of petitioners must be kept to not more than
15.
(5) A person must, by written notice (which
may be incorporated into the original
petition), signify
his or her consent to being a petitioner.
(6) A person may resign from being a
petitioner by written notice furnished to the
Electoral
Commissioner and to the other petitioners.
7—Registration
of petition
(1) The Electoral Commissioner should, subject
to this section, register a petition within 14 days after its delivery to the
Electoral Commissioner.
(2) The Electoral Commissioner must not
register a petition if—
(a) it does not comply with a relevant
requirement of this Act; or
(b) it—
(i) deals with 2 or more subject-matters which
appear to the Electoral
Commissioner to be
not directly or indirectly related; or
(ii) affects the rights or liabilities of a
named person (other than in the
person's capacity
as a public official); or
(iii) provides for the appointment of a named
person to public office or
for the removal of
a named person from public office; or
(iii)(i)
Calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment.
(iv) provides for
matter which, if enacted as a law of the State, would
clearly be
inconsistent with the Australian Constitution or a valid
Commonwealth law.
(3) The Electoral Commissioner may consult
with such persons as the Electoral
Commissioner thinks
fit for the purposes of subsection (2).
(4) The Electoral Commissioner may request or
invite the petitioners to make such
changes to the
petition (being changes to its title, the description of the proposed law
set out in the
petition or the supporting material accompanying the petition) as the
Electoral
Commissioner considers necessary to enable it to be registered.
(5) Any such change may be effected by the
withdrawal of the petition and the delivery of a new petition duly signed by
the requisite number of electors or, if the Electoral Commissioner is satisfied
that the change does not alter the substance of the proposed law, by a notice
in writing signed by all the petitioners.
(6) Once the Electoral Commissioner has
accepted a petition a sequential number will be given to the petition and the
status of the petition will be shown on the web site of the Electoral Commission.
The status of any petition will be:
(6)(1) Upon
acceptance of the petition, ‘Lodged’
(6)(2) Upon receipt
of the requisite number of signatures, ‘Pending’
(6)(3) Upon expiry
of the permitted time without the requisite number of signatures, ‘Lapsed’.
(6)(4) Upon the
withdrawal of the petition, ‘Withdrawn’.
(6)(5) Upon the
failure of a petition at a referendum, ‘Failed’.
(6)(6) Upon the
success of a petition at a referendum, ‘Passed’.
.
(7) The Electoral Commissioner must notify the
petitioners of a decision not to register the petition and inform them of the
reasons for that decision.
8—Preparation
of statement to accompany petition
(1) The Electoral Commissioner must, on the
registration of a petition, deliver a copy of the petition to the Parliamentary
Counsel.
(2) The Parliamentary Counsel must, on the
receipt of a petition from the Electoral
Commissioner,
prepare a brief outline of the legislative measure that the
Parliamentary
Counsel would expect to prepare to give effect to the proposed law set
out in the
petition.
(3) The Parliamentary Counsel may, in
preparing the outline, consult with such persons as the Parliamentary Counsel
thinks fit.
(4) The Parliamentary Counsel must, on the
completion of the outline, deliver a copy of the outline—
(a) to the Electoral Commissioner; and
(b) to the petitioners.
(5) The outline will form part of the
supporting material that is to accompany the petition.
(6) Nothing contained in an outline is binding
with respect to the preparation of a draft Bill if the petition subsequently
becomes a qualified petition.
9—Availability
of copy of petition etc
(1) The Electoral Commissioner must make
available for public inspection copies of any petition registered by the
Electoral Commissioner, together with any changes notified to the Electoral
Commissioner in accordance with this Act and any supporting material
accompanying the petition.
(2) Any such material is to be made available
at the office of the Electoral Commissioner in Adelaide and on the web site of
the Commission.
(4) The Electoral Commissioner may make any
such material available for sale at cost.
Division
2—Electoral officials
10—Local
electoral officials
(1) The Electoral Commissioner will appoint
for each House of Assembly electoral
district a local
electoral official to deal with petitions signed by electors in that district.
(2) A person may be appointed as the local
electoral official for 2 or more districts.
(3) The Electoral Commissioner may also
appoint other persons as electoral officials to assist in dealing with
petitions.
(4) An electoral official appointed under this
section must exercise a function under this Act in accordance with any relevant
direction of the Electoral Commissioner.
Division
3—Signatories to petition
11—Signatories
to petition
(1) A signatory to a registered petition must
be an elector at the time he or she signs the petition.
(2) A person must not sign a registered
petition more than once.
(3) A person who is enrolled or who claims to be an elector may sign
a registered petition.
(4) The Electoral Commissioner and any
electoral official may use such electoral
information and
material as the Electoral Commissioner thinks fit for the purposes of
determining the
eligibility of signatories to the petition under this Part.
12—Particulars
of signatories to petition
(1) Signature to a petition shall be by way of
registration of the signature through the web site of the Electoral Commission.
The total of valid signatures at any time shall be shown on the website of the
Electoral Commission.
(2) The following particulars of signatories
are required on a registered petition:
(a) the full name of the person;
(b) the address of the person (which should be shown on the relevant
electoral
roll for the
petition);
(c) the date of birth of the person;
(d) any other
information required by the regulations.
(Division 4—Qualification of petition for submission of proposed law to
electors
13—Closing
date
The closing date
(the last date on which a person may sign a petition) is the date that is 12
months after the end of the month in which the petition was registered.
14—Number
of electors required to sign petition to qualify for referendum
(1) A registered petition does not qualify for
submission of the proposed law to a
referendum unless
the petition has been signed by 2% enrolled electors.
(2) Only electors who sign a petition before
the closing date for the petition are to be
taken into account
for the purpose of determining whether the petition is a qualified
petition.
15
Certificate of qualification
(1) The Electoral Commissioner must certify
any petition which the Electoral
Commissioner
determines qualifies for submission of the proposed law to a
referendum.
(2) The certificate (a certificate of
qualification) is to set out the description of the
proposed law.
(3) The Electoral Commissioner issues the
certificate of qualification by publishing the certificate in the Gazette and
on the web site of the Commission.
(4) If the Electoral Commissioner issues a
certificate of qualification, the Electoral
Commissioner must,
within 7 days, deliver a copy of the certificate and any relevant
material—
(a) to the
President and to the Speaker; and
(b) to the Parliamentary Counsel.
16—Drafting
of proposed law
(1) The Parliamentary Counsel is required to
prepare a draft of the law proposed by a
qualified petition
in accordance with the relevant description supplied by the Electoral
Commissioner.
(2) The Parliamentary Counsel must, in
preparing a draft of the proposed law, consult
with one or more of
the petitioners, and may consult with any other persons as the
Parliamentary
Counsel thinks fit.
(3) The Parliamentary Counsel may, in
preparing a draft of a proposed law, on his or her own initiative, include such
provisions or make such adjustments as in his or her
opinion are
necessary or appropriate to ensure that the law is legally effective and
include such
transitional, machinery, ancillary or related provisions as the
Parliamentary
Counsel (in his or her absolute discretion) thinks fit.
(4) The Parliamentary Counsel must deliver a
settled draft of the proposed law—
(a) to the
President and the Speaker; and
(b) to the petitioners.
17—Tabling
of petition
(1) As soon as practicable after the Electoral
Commissioner has delivered to the President and the Speaker the certificate of
qualification for a petition and the Parliamentary Counsel has delivered to the
President and the Speaker a copy of the draft proposed law—
(a) the President is required to cause a copy
of the certificate and the draft Bill to
be tabled in the
Legislative Council; and
(b) the Speaker is required to cause a copy of
the certificate and the draft Bill to
be tabled in the
House of Assembly.
(2) The Parliamentary Counsel may, after
consultation with the President, the Speaker, and a representative of the
petitioners (nominated by a majority of the petitioners in accordance with the
regulations), and any other persons as the Parliamentary Counsel thinks fit,
alter and then resettle a draft Bill after it has been tabled and the
Parliamentary Counsel may do this on more than 1 occasion but must not act so
as to derogate from the general purposes of the Bill).
18—Drafting
of ballot papers
(1) A question on the ballot paper at a
referendum of a proposed law may deal with not more than 1 subject-matter of a
proposed law unless the subject-matters are directly or indirectly related.
(2) Separate
questions must be presented on the ballot paper if the Electoral
Commissioner or the
Parliamentary Counsel requires the submission of separate
questions on a
provision or provisions of a subject-matter of the proposed law to
referendum.
(3) The form and presentation of the ballot
paper will be determined by the Electoral
Commissioner after
consultation with the Parliamentary Counsel and a representative
of the petitioners
nominated by a majority of the petitioners in accordance with the
regulations.
(4) If there are 2 or more questions on the
ballot paper, and these deal with the same
subject-matter, the
voting on these questions may be by preferential voting, or by
some other method
of voting, as determined by the Electoral Commissioner after
consultation with
the petitioners (or a representative of the petitioners nominated by a
majority of the
petitioners in accordance with the regulations).
(5) The Electoral Commissioner may determine
any other related matter as the Electoral Commissioner thinks fit.
19—Bills
to be submitted to the referendum
The Bill or Bills
as last settled by the Parliamentary Counsel is or are the Bill or Bills
to be submitted to
the referendum.
Part
3—Referendum
20—Date
of referendum
(1) Subject to this
Act, a referendum on a proposed law must be held on—
(a) unless paragraph (b) or (c) applies, the
date of the first general election of members of the House of Assembly after
the tabling of the draft proposed law in both Houses of Parliament under
section 17; or
(b) a date
determined by resolution of both Houses of Parliament, being a date
that is earlier
than the date that would otherwise apply under paragraph (a).
(c) Subject to
paragraphs (a) and (b), the petitioners may elect to have the referendum held
by way of a postal vote in March of any year.
(c)(i) The election
to hold a postal vote shall be made by the petitioners at the time the petition
is first lodged by the petitioners and this election may not be changed without
the permission of the Electoral Commissioner.
(c)(ii) The
Electoral Commissioner shall determine the rules for the conduct of a postal
vote and shall publish regulations governing the conduct of such a vote.
(2) Nothing in this section prevents more than
1 referendum being held on the same day.
21—Conduct
of referendum
(1) The Electoral Commissioner is responsible
for the conduct of the referendum.
(2) The Electoral Act 1985 applies to
the referendum with adaptions, exclusions and
modifications
prescribed by regulation, or determined by the Electoral Commissioner
by notice in the
Gazette, as if the referendum were a general election of members of
the House of
Assembly.
(3) The petitioners may, by notice given to
the Electoral Commissioner in accordance
with the
regulations, appoint 1 or more scrutineers for the purposes of the referendum.
22—Entitlement
to vote
The persons
entitled to vote at a referendum will be the electors (and no other
persons).
23—Declaration
of result of referendum
(1) The Electoral
Commissioner must publish the result of a referendum by notice in the Gazette
and on the web site of the Commission when the result is conclusively
determined.
(2) The publication of a notice under
subsection (1) is conclusive evidence of the result of the referendum.
24—Approval
by electors
(1) A proposed law
is approved by the electors at a referendum if a majority of the
electors voting at
the referendum approve the proposed law, provided always that at least 50% of
those eligible to vote have cast a valid vote, and, in the case of a postal
vote:
(1)(a) The petition
calling for the referendum has had a Pending
status for at least 50 days before the date of the referendum.
(1)(b) In the case
of a postal vote, the date of the referendum referred to in paragraph (1)(a)
shall determined by the Electoral Commissioner.
(2) On approval, the proposed law is to be
taken as incorporating a request to the
Governor that the
Governor assent to the approved law, and the Electoral
Commissioner is
required to present the approved law to the Governor for the
Governor's assent.
(3) The enacting provision of a law approved
by the electors, when so assented to, will be:
"The electors
of South Australia under the provisions of the Direct
Democracy
(Citizen-Initiated Referendums) Act 20xx enact as follows:".
(4) If the electors approve at 2 or more
referendums held on the same day 2 or more
proposals the
provisions of which conflict in any respect, the provisions of the
proposal receiving
the highest affirmative vote will, to the extent of any inconsistency, prevail,
and those other provisions are, to the extent of any inconsistency, invalid and
of no effect.
Part
4—Advertising
25—Printing
and publication of CIR advertisements, notices etc
(1) A person must not publish or distribute,
or cause or permit to be published or
distributed, a CIR
advertisement in printed form unless—
(a) the name and address (not being a post
office box) of the author of the
advertisement, or
the person who authorised its publication, appears at the
end; and
(b) in the case of a CIR advertisement that is
printed but not in a newspaper—the
name and place of
business of the printer appears at the end.
Maximum penalty:
(a) if the offender is a body corporate—$5
000;
(b) if the offender
is a natural person—$1 250.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation
to—
(a) a car sticker, T-shirt, lapel button,
lapel badge, pen, pencil or balloon; or
(b) an article included in a prescribed class
of articles.
26—Misleading
advertising
(1) This section applies to advertisements
published by any means (including radio or
television).
(2) A person who authorises, causes or permits
the publication of a CIR advertisement (an advertiser) is guilty
of an offence if the advertisement contains a statement purporting to be a
statement of fact that is inaccurate and misleading to a material extent.
Maximum penalty:
(a) if the offender is a body corporate—$10
000;
(b) if the offender is a natural person—$1
250.
(3) However, it is a defence to a charge of an
offence against subsection (2) to establish that the defendant—
(a) took no part in determining the content of
the advertisement; and
(b) could not reasonably be expected to have
known that the statement to which
the charge relates
was inaccurate and misleading.
(4) If the Electoral Commissioner is satisfied
that a CIR advertisement contains a
statement
purporting to be a statement of fact that is inaccurate and misleading to a
material extent,
the Electoral Commissioner may request the advertiser to do one or
more of the
following:
(a) withdraw the advertisement from further
publication;
(b) publish a retraction in specified terms
and a specified manner and form,
(and in proceedings for an offence against
subsection (2) arising from the
advertisement, the
advertiser's response to a request under this subsection will be
taken into account
in assessing any penalty to which the advertiser may be liable).
27—Heading
to advertisements
(1) If CIR matter is to be inserted in a
journal, the proprietor of the journal must cause the word
"advertisement" to be printed as a headline in letters not smaller
than 10 point or long primer to each article or paragraph containing the CIR
matter.
Maximum penalty:
(a) if the offender is a body corporate—$2
500;
(b) if the offender is a natural person—$750.
(2) This section
applies only in respect of CIR matter for the publication of which
payment or other
consideration has been, or is to be, given.
(3) In this section—
journal means a
newspaper, magazine or other periodical, whether published for sale
or for distribution
without charge.
28—Published
material to identify person responsible for content
(1) A person must not publish material
consisting of, or containing a commentary on, the issues being submitted to
electors by a registered petition under this Act or in a
referendum under
this Act, in written form, or by radio or television, unless the
material or the
program in which the material is presented contains a statement of the
name and address
(not being a post office box) of a person who takes responsibility
for the publication
of the material.
Maximum penalty:
(a) if the offender is a body corporate—$5
000;
(b) if the offender
is a natural person—$1 250.
(2) This section does not apply to—
(a) the publication in a newspaper of a
leading article;
(b) the publication of a report of a meeting
that does not contain any comment
(other than comment
made by a speaker at the meeting) on the issues being
submitted to
electors;
(c) the publication in a newspaper of an
article, letter, report or other matter if the
newspaper contains
a statement to the effect that a person whose name and
address (not being
a post office box) appears in the statement takes
responsibility for
the publication of all CIR matter published in the
newspaper;
(d) a news service or a current affairs
programme on radio or television;
(e) any other prescribed material or class of material.
29—Evidence
In proceedings for
an offence against this Part—
(a) a CIR
advertisement that includes a statement that its publication was
authorised by a
specified person; or
(b) a CIR advertisement that includes a statement that it was
printed by a
specified person;
or
(c) material consisting of, or containing, a
commentary on the issues being
submitted to
electors, that includes a statement that a specified person takes
responsibility for
the publication of the material; or
(d) an apparently genuine document purporting
to be a certificate of the Electoral
Commissioner
certifying that the Electoral Commissioner made a request for
the withdrawal of a
misleading advertisement or the publication of a
retraction,
is, in the absence
of proof to the contrary, proof of that fact.
Part
5—Miscellaneous
30—General
ability to withdraw petition
(1) The petitioners
may, by notice in writing signed by a majority of the petitioners and provided
to the Electoral Commissioner, at any time, propose—
(a) the withdrawal of a petition; or
(b) the withdrawal of any part of the
subject-matter of a proposed law; or
(c) the postponement of the submission of a
proposed law to referendum; or
(d) the termination of a referendum.
(2) Subject to any determination of the
Electoral Commissioner after consultation with the Attorney-General, a notice
under subsection (1) will have effect according to its terms and the Electoral
Commissioner must give notice of this in the Gazette and on the web site of the
Commission.
31—Effect
of approved law
(1) A law approved
by electors at a referendum and assented to by the Governor under this Act will
be taken to be an Act of the Parliament of South Australia for the
purposes of any
other Act or law (and may then be subject to the operation of a
subsequent Act of
the Parliament.
(2) A law approved by electors at a referendum
may itself effect amendments to an Act of Parliament (including an Act within
the ambit of subsection (1)).
(3) An irregularity in compliance with a
provision of Part 2 does not affect the validity of a law approved by electors
at a referendum and assented to by the Governor under this Act.
32—Offences
relating to petitions
(1) A person who
signs another person's name to a petition, whether electronically or otherwise,
or who knowingly signs a petition more than once, or who, not being an elector,
knowingly signs a petition, is guilty of an offence.
(2) A person who gives or offers or promises
to give any money or other material benefit to a person to obtain the person's
signature to a petition is guilty of an offence.
(3) A person who,
without reasonable excuse, hinders or obstructs a person from
collecting
signatures for a petition is guilty of an offence.
(4) A person who knowingly misrepresents a
proposed law in order to induce a person to sign or not sign a petition is
guilty of an offence.
(5) A person who uses or makes available to
any person any particulars obtained from a petition about a signatory to a
petition for a purpose that is not connected with the administration of this
Act is guilty of an offence.
(6) A person who threatens, offers or suggests
any violence, injury, damage, loss or
disadvantage to any
elector or any other person in order to induce an elector to sign or
refrain from
signing a petition is guilty of an offence.
(7) A person who inflicts or procures any
violence, injury, damage, loss or disadvantage to an elector or any other
person for or on account of an elector signing or refraining from signing a
petition is guilty of an offence.
(8) A person who prints, publishes or
distributes any advertisement or document
containing a
representation of a ballot paper, or any representation appearing to
represent a ballot
paper, containing directions likely to mislead, or any untrue or
incorrect statement
likely to mislead, an elector in or in relation to the casting of a vote at a
referendum is guilty of an offence.
(9) If a body corporate is guilty of an
offence against this Act, each director and manager of the body corporate is
guilty of an offence and liable to the same penalty as may be imposed for the
principal offence unless it is proved that the principal offence did not result
from failure on his or her part to take reasonable and practicable measures to
prevent the commission of the offence.
(10) A person who is found guilty of an
offence against this Act is liable to a penalty not exceeding $10 000.
33—Application
to Supreme Court to restrain breach
(1) The Electoral Commissioner may apply to
the Supreme Court for an order to remedy or restrain a breach of this Act.
(2) An application may be made in the absence of the respondent and,
if the Court is
satisfied on the
application that the respondent has a case to answer, the Court may
grant leave to the
applicant to serve a summons requiring the respondent to appear
before the Court to
show cause why an order should not be made under this section.
(3) If—
(a) after hearing—
(i) the applicant
and the respondent; and
(ii) any other person who has, in the opinion
of the Court, a proper
interest in the
subject matter of the proceedings and desires to be
heard in the
proceedings, the Court is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the
respondent to the application has breached this Act; or
(b) the respondent fails to appear in response
to the summons or, having
appeared, does not
avail himself or herself of an opportunity to be heard,
the Court may, by
order, exercise 1 or more of the following powers:
(c) require the respondent to refrain, either
temporarily or permanently, from the
act, or course of
action, that constitutes the breach;
(d) require the respondent to make good the
breach in a manner, and within a
period, specified
by the Court, or to take such other action as may appear
appropriate to the
Court;
(e) if relevant—require the respondent to do
one or both of the following:
(i) withdraw an advertisement from further
publication;
(ii) publish a
retraction in specified terms and in a specified manner and
form;
(f) require the respondent to pay to any
person who has incurred costs or
expenses as a
result of the breach, an amount for, or towards, those costs or
expenses;
(g) if the Court
considers it appropriate to do so, require the respondent to pay an
amount, determined
by the Court, in the nature of exemplary damages into
the Consolidated
Account;
(h) require the respondent to take specified
action to publicise—
(i) the breach of this Act; and
(ii) the other
requirements of the order made against the respondent.
(4) The Court may make such order in relation
to costs of proceedings under this section as it thinks just and reasonable.
(5) In this section—
breach of this
Act includes a threatened contravention of, or failure to comply with,
this Act.
34—Regulations
(1) The Governor may make such regulations as
are contemplated by, or necessary or
expedient for the
purposes, of this Act.
(2) Without limiting the generality of
subsection (1), the regulations may—
(a) provide for the
form and provision of any document under or for the purposes
of this Act; and
(b) provide that any matter or thing is to be
determined, dispensed with, regulated
or prohibited
according to the discretion of the Electoral Commissioner or
another prescribed
person; and
(c) impose
penalties, not exceeding $10 000, for a contravention of, or failure to
comply with, a
regulation.
Schedule
1—Entrenchment
1—Entrenchment
No law passed as a
result of a referendum conducted under this Act shall be repealed or
substantially amended unless:
(1)(a) The repeal
or amendment has been approved at a referendum (which may be called by the
parliament at any time) or,
(1)(b) The repeal
or amendment has received a two thirds majority vote of both houses of the
South Australian Parliament.
2—Referendum
requirements
(1) A referendum under this Schedule will be
held on a date appointed by proclamation for the purpose, being a date falling
at least 50 days after the Bill is passed by Parliament.
(2) The question to be put at the referendum
will be specified by proclamation.
3—Electoral
Commissioner to conduct referendum
(1) The Electoral Commissioner will be
responsible for the conduct of the referendum.
(2) The Electoral Act 1985 applies to
the referendum with adaptions, exclusions and
modifications prescribed
by regulation, or determined by the Electoral Commissioner
by notice in the
Gazette, as if the referendum were a general election of members of
the House of
Assembly.
(3) An elector is under a duty to vote at the
referendum.
4—Publication
of result
(1) The Electoral
Commissioner must publish the result of the referendum by notice in the Gazette
and on the web site of the Commission when the result is conclusively
determined.
(2) The publication of a notice under
subclause (1) is conclusive evidence of the result of the referendum.
5—Presentation
of Bill to Governor
If a majority of
electors voting at the referendum approve the Bill at the referendum, it will
be presented to the Governor for assent.
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