ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMISSION ACT 1989 No. 150 of 1989 - SECT 138 Rules for conduct of elections

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMISSION ACT 1989 No. 150 of 1989 - SECT 138

138. (1) The Minister may, after consulting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Commission and the Electoral Commissioner, make rules, not
inconsistent with this Act, prescribing:

   (a)  the manner in which zone elections are to be conducted; and

   (b)  the manner in which casual vacancies among the elected Commissioners
        are to be filled.

(2) The matters that may be dealt with in rules under subsection (1) include,
but are not limited to, the following matters:

   (a)  the nomination of candidates for election;

   (b)  ballot papers and forms;

   (c)  postal voting;

   (d)  confidentiality of voting;

   (e)  the performance of administrative duties in relation to elections by
        members of staff of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
        Commission;

   (f)  the scrutiny and counting of votes;

   (g)  the declaration of the poll.

(3) The rules may provide penalties for breaches of the rules not exceeding:

   (a)  in the case of a natural person-$1,000; or

   (b)  in the case of a body corporate-$5,000.

(4) Where:

   (a)  the rules create an offence in relation to zone elections that
        corresponds to an offence under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918;
        and

   (b)  the maximum pecuniary penalty for the offence under the Commonwealth 
        Electoral Act 1918 exceeds the penalty that, by subsection (3), could
        be imposed for a breach of the rules; the rules may provide a maximum
        penalty for the first-mentioned offence not exceeding the maximum
        pecuniary penalty for the corresponding offence under the
        Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, but nothing in this subsection
        enables the rules to provide penalties of imprisonment.

(5) Rules made by the Minister under subsection (1) are a disallowable
instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 
1901 .

(6) Section 48 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 applies in relation to
rules made by the Minister under subsection (1), other than rules made for the
purposes of the first round of zone elections, as if paragraph (1) (b) of that
section were omitted and the following paragraph were substituted:

"(b) subject to this section, shall take effect on the first day on which the
rules are no longer liable to be disallowed, or to be deemed to have been
disallowed, under this section; and".