Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission

Agency overview
Formed	21 February 1984
Jurisdiction	Commonwealth of Australia
Headquarters	Canberra
Employees	2,166 (as at April 2013)[1]
Minister responsible	Mathias Cormann, Special Minister of State
Agency executives	Mr Tom Rogers, Electoral Commissioner The Hon. Peter Heerey QC, Chairperson Mr Brian Pink, Non-judicial member
Parent agency	Department of Finance and Deregulation
Website	www.aec.gov.au

Entrance to polling station run by the Australian Electoral Commission (Australian Federal Elections 2016)

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the federal independent agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal elections and referendums. State and local government elections are overseen by separate Electoral Commissions in each state and territory: New South Wales elections are conducted by the New South Wales Electoral Commission, in Queensland it is the Electoral Commission of Queensland; in Victoria it is the Victorian Electoral Commission; in South Australia it is the Electoral Commission of South Australia; in Tasmania it is the Tasmanian Electoral Commission; in Western Australia it is the Western Australian Electoral Commission; in the Northern Territory it is the Northern Territory Electoral Commission and in the Australian Capital Territory it is the Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission.

Responsibilities

The AEC's main responsibility is to conduct federal elections, by-elections and referendums. The AEC is also responsible for seat boundaries and redistributions, and the maintenance of an up-to-date electoral roll. Under the Joint Roll Arrangements, the AEC maintains the electoral roll for the whole of Australia, which is used by the state and territory Electoral Commissions to conduct their elections. The AEC publishes detailed election results and follows up electors who fail to vote.

The AEC is also responsible for monitoring the activities of registered political parties, including receiving returns from parties of donations and expenditures, and the publication of the information. It also disburses public funding of political parties.

The AEC also plays an electoral education role, aiming to educate citizens about the electoral process by which representatives are elected, and by which the Australian Constitution is changed (referendums). It also plays a role in industrial voting (eg., votes on industrial action).

History and structure

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902^[2] set up the framework for the Commonwealth electoral system, which was administered as a branch of the Department of Home Affairs. In 1973, the Australian Electoral Office was created, a name it retained until 21 February 1984 when it became the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), a Commonwealth statutory authority. The AEC is answerable to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters^[3] of the Parliament of Australia, and must report on how elections were carried out and the success of elections in general.

The AEC was created by and operates under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. It consists of a chairman (a Judge or a retired Judge of the Federal Court), the Electoral Commissioner and a non-judicial member (usually the Australian Statistician). The Electoral Commissioner has the powers of a Secretary of a Department under the Public Service Act 1999 and the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1998. The Chairperson and the third, non-judicial member both hold their offices on a part-time basis.

AEC has a National Office in Canberra and an office in each State and Territory: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Each House of Representatives electorate has a Divisional Returning Officer responsible for administration of elections within the division. Each State also has an Australian Electoral Officer responsible for administration of Senate elections.

Since the loss of 1,400 ballots during the recount for the 2013 Western Australia Senate election and the subsequent 2014 special election the AEC has been under significant scrutiny.^[4]

List of Australian Electoral Commissioners

On 21 February 2014, Ed Killesteyn announced his resignation as Australian Electoral Commissioner, with effect on 4 July 2014. He took personal leave until that date, and Deputy Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers acted in his place,^[6] before being appointed to the position.

See also

• Albert Langer
• Electoral system of Australia
• Compulsory voting

Notes

External links

• The Australian Electoral Commission website
• The Electoral Council of Australia and New Zealand website, the consultative council between the AEC, New Zealand, state and territory electoral authorities