NTEC pulls out of Central Australia with no staff based in Alice Springs since January
THERE have been no permanent Northern Territory Electoral Commission staff based in Central Australia since January and it remains unclear if any workers will be posted there in the future
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THERE have been no permanent Northern Territory Electoral Commission staff based in Central Australia since January and it remains unclear if any workers will be posted there in the future.
Commissioner Iain Loganathan (pictured), speaking on day 1 of budget estimates on Monday, confirmed the NTEC had an agreement with the Local Government Department to base one staff member in Alice Springs.
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But the person in that role left in January this year and Mr Loganathan said there was no opportunity to recruit someone with the required experience to run an election.
“A decision was made to send staff from this (Darwin) office down to Alice Springs, which we did in June … and they were there for three or four months,” he said.
The NTEC hopes a planned increase of Australian Electoral Commission services in the Territory will allow an ongoing presence in Central Australia.
Independent MLA Robyn Lambley, noting the NTEC had closed its Alice Springs shop front in January 2019, said that this appeared to be the “final nail in the coffin for the NTEC in Central Australia”.
“With no presence in Central Australia, the NTEC has a diminished role in this process of firstly ensuring that people are enrolled to vote, and secondly, educating and assisting people to vote,” she said.
Mr Loganathan confirmed the NT’s August election cost $3.7m to run.
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He also faced questioning from Arafura MLA Lawrence Costa and Independent Mulka MLA Yingiya Guyula about what the NTEC was doing to spur Aboriginal voters to cast their ballot, following the concerning low turnout this year.
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