Australian Electoral Commission petitions Court of Disputed Returns to void the 2013 West Australian Senate Election

Australian Electoral Commission Media Release:

Petition lodged with Court of Disputed Returns

Updated: 15 November 2013

The three-person Australian Electoral Commission today authorised the Electoral Commissioner to lodge a petition with the Court of Disputed Returns in respect of the 2013 Western Australian Senate election.

The petition was lodged at approximately 2:30pm AEDT today.

The petition seeks an order from the Court that the WA Senate election of six senators be declared void.

Given the closeness of the margins that favoured the final two declared candidates, the petition is based on the premise that the inability to include 1370 missing ballot papers in the recount of the WA Senate election means that the election was likely to be affected for the purposes of s 362(3) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

As the matter is now before the Court the AEC will not be making any further comment.

The AEC recently appointed Mr Mick Keelty AO to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the missing ballots.  Mr Keelty’s inquiries are continuing.

Editorial note: For copies of the petition, please contact the High Court Registry’s public information officer (Canberra) during their business hours. The AEC will not be posting or distributing the document.

National media contact:

Phil Diak | Director Media
AEC, Canberra
02 6271 4415
0413 452 539

media@aec.gov.au

Abbott Government: Mandate? What Mandate?

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has challenged new Labor leader Bill Shorten to heed the verdict of voters by not opposing legislation to repeal the carbon tax.

Someone needs to remind Prime Minister Abbott that the combined first preference vote of all four political parties (Liberal, Liberal-National, Nationals, Country Liberals NT) which form the current Coalition Government only came to 42.85 per cent of all ballots cast at the 7 September 2013 federal election.

That leaves the bulk of the remaining 57.15 per cent of voters at that election with government policy aspirations which are highly likely to run counter to Abbott’s aspirations.

Any talk of a mandate is accepting myth as fact.

* Image from The Australian

Did Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott make doubly sure he received four particular votes in the 2013 Australian Federal Election?

Anyone who has watched the past televised coverage of Australian Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott with his family in an interview situation will know that he has a habit of breathing down the necks of his wife and daughters when they speak to the media.

Tony Abbott quickly moving into frame when one of his daughters was asked to comment during the

ABC TV Kitchen Cabinet program on 4 September 2013

The troublesome question is; has Abbott carried this one step too far? 

Apparently all the family submitted sealed votes at the Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club on 7 September 2013, which may possibly have been silent votes lodged with the precautionary aim of concealing their (already widely publicised) main residential address on the public electoral rolls.

Certainly the photographs below show these sealed envelopes were lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission at the polling booth they attended for that last media bite played out for the attending press.

Which leaves one wondering - did the over controlling Abbott line up his wife and daughters at home and either direct or check that they had voted according to his wishes before the envelopes were sealed?

A far cry from the Abbott family queueing to vote sans sealed envelopes, in the election the Coalition lost in 2010

These election day photographs are courtesy of relentless self-promotion by the Abbott family found on Zimbio