Commonwealth act

Electoral Divisions Act 1903

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

9 of 1903

Collection

act

Plain English Summary

1/10 complexity

This 1903 law let the Commonwealth temporarily adopt any State’s existing electoral districts as federal divisions—but only where the State’s districts equalled its entitlement of House seats—so early federal elections could use familiar maps. The arrangement lasted until both Houses approved a formal seat distribution, and it makes a minor wording change to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Electoral Divisions Act 1903.

Electoral Divisions Act 1903

ELECTORAL DIVISIONS.

No. 9 of 1903.

An Act relating to Elections.

[Assented to 11th September, 1903.]

BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title &c.

This Act may be cited as the Electoral Divisions Act 1903, and shall be construed and read as one with the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902.

Divisions under State law to be deemed Divisions under Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902.

Where under a law of a State, made in pursuance of the Constitution, the State is at the commencement of this Act distributed into Electoral Divisions equal in number to the number of members of the House of Representatives to be chosen therein, those Electoral Divisions shall, until both Houses of the Parliament have passed a resolution approving of a proposed distribution of the State into Divisions, be taken to be Divisions within the meaning of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902.

Amendment of Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902, sec. 19.

Section nineteen of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902 is hereby amended, as from the commencement of that Act, by the omission of the words “names and.”

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Electoral Divisions Act 1903