What it does
The Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995 (Tasmania) establishes a comprehensive statutory framework for the periodic redistribution of electoral divisions for the Tasmanian Legislative Council (the upper house of State Parliament). The Act creates a two-tiered institutional structure to manage redistributions: a Redistribution Committee and a Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission, both appointed by the Governor by notice published in the Gazette during a prescribed period of 60 days after a recommendation by the Electoral Commissioner is given to the Minister under section 10(2). The Redistribution Committee consists of three members - the Electoral Commissioner (as chairperson), the Surveyor-General, and a person nominated by the Australian Statistician (section 5(1)). The Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission comprises the members of the Redistribution Committee plus two additional members: the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (who becomes chairperson of the Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission) and the other member of the Electoral Commission who is not its chairperson or the Electoral Commissioner (section 6(1)). Alternate members are appointed for each member except the Electoral Commissioner and members of the Electoral Commission (section 7(1)). A redistribution commences as soon as practicable after the appointment of the Redistribution Committee (section 10(1)). The trigger for a new redistribution is either (a) a determination under section 9 showing that, at any time after 5 years since the last redistribution, the number of electors enrolled in 4 or more Council divisions varies by more than 25% from the average Council division enrolment; or (b) a period of 10 years has elapsed since the appointment of the Redistribution Committee (section 10(2)). Upon either trigger, the Electoral Commissioner must recommend to the Minister that the Committee and the Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission be re-appointed. The Minister must lay a copy of that recommendation before the Legislative Council within 5 sitting days (section 10(3)). The Act sets out a detailed process for preparing initial redistribution proposals, public consultation through objections and inquiries, and final determination by the Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission. It also includes a specific Division 5A dealing with transition arrangements to implement a redistribution in respect of the Legislative Council, including the reduction of the number of members from 19 to 15 (completed by the third annual periodical election after the first determination following the commencement of the Parliamentary Reform Act 1998). The Act makes the decisions and determinations of the Redistribution Committee and the Tasmanian Augmented Electoral Commission final and conclusive, immune from judicial review (section 28).