Electoral (Administration) Bill Report Back

The Justice & Electoral Select Committee has reported back on the Electoral (Administration) Bill.

Their recommendations are:

• The Electoral Commission remain an independent Crown entity
• rejected making it an Officer of Parliament, as it has a responsibility to deliver smooth running elections, and a Minister, not the Speaker, should be responsible for the performance of that function
• Key change is the the three Electoral Commissions are ow effectively appointed by Parliament, rather than the Minister of Justice. This is a key issue which myself and other submitters asked for.
• A minor change is that the Chief Electoral Office can not be the Deputy Chairperson. This is a suggestion I made, so it does show the value of taking the time to make submissions.

Personally I still a bit nervous that a Government with a majority in the House could force through appointments which do not have widespread support, but hopefully future Governments will place a premium on the desirability of consensus around any names they place before the House.

But overall the Select Committee has nicely improved the bill, and it should get passed into law without difficulty.

It will be interesting to see in due course who the three Commissioners are.