House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

Circulated By Authority of the Hon Robert Mcclelland MP, Attorney-General

Schedule 4 - Amendment of references to "ballot-paper" and "ballot-papers"

125 The items in this Schedule amend references to the expressions "ballot-paper" and "ballot-papers" occurring throughout the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 . Due to the age of the Act, and the number of amendments that have been made to it, some inconsistency in use of the expressions has developed. Some occurrences are hyphenated, while others are not. The Macquarie Dictionary defines the term "ballot paper" without a hyphen.

126 Schedule 4 amends all hyphenated occurrences of the expressions to remove the hyphen. Part 1 amends specific occurrences of the expressions, whilst Part 2 amends all other references to "ballot-paper" and Part 3 amends all other references to "ballot-papers".