Boundaries battle ‘strikes to the very heart of democracy’: Labor
Five of the state’s top judges will be asked to rule on “a question that strikes to the very heart of what it means to be a democratic society” when they preside over the historic Supreme Court challenge to the state’s redrawn electoral boundaries.
Photo: Nat Rogers / InDaily
The matter returned to court today before Chief Justice Chris Kourakis after the South Australian Labor Party’s state secretary Reggie Martin last month launched action to challenge the final report of the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission – a redistribution that would likely hand Government to the Liberal Party if it captures more than 50 per cent of the statewide vote at next year’s election.
In a directions hearing today, Kourakis acquiesced to Labor’s request that the matter be heard by a full bench of five judges – rather than the usual three – with the ALP’s lawyer Adrian Tisato arguing the breadth of perspective was important, given historical “successive decisions of different [boundaries] commissions”.
The court will be asked to review the recent commission’s interpretation of section 77 of the Constitution Act – and its relevance to attaining electoral “fairness” – after the redistribution determined that maintaining the same number of electors in each seat was a secondary consideration.
Labor maintains the “one vote, one value” principle should be maintained as far as possible.
“The court will be asked to determine a question of the utmost importance to the people of South Australia, namely how they elect their members of parliament,” Tisato told the court.
“This question strikes to the very heart of what it means to be a democratic society.”
He said before contentious electoral reform under Don Dunstan, the state had “suffered for more than three decades under the least democratic system in Australia”.
“Each [previous] commission has had a judge of this court sitting as chair and, until 2016, numerical equality of voters has been a fundamental tenet of the approach of the commission,” Tisato argued.
The 2016 commission was chaired by Justice Ann Vanstone.
The request for a five-judge bench was not opposed by counsel for the commission or the Liberal Party.
The Australian Democrats today opted not to join the Liberals in opposing Labor’s challenge, after the court could not guarantee they would not be liable for any costs.
The court’s public gallery was divided along party lines, with ALP state secretary Martin attending, as well as his opposite number, Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum. Deputy Liberal leader Vickie Chapman was also present.
