Media Release 2005: Follow-up to 2004 Federal Election in Queensland

6 December 2005

The Electoral Commissioner, Ian Campbell, today stated that 300 federal election postal ballots had not been included in the count at the 2004 federal election in Queensland.

This small quantity of ballots was returned to the AEC's Fadden Divisional Office before the deadline of 22 October 2004 but were unfortunately overlooked and not opened or counted.

"Irrespective of the order of exclusion and how each of these individual votes were cast, these 300 postal votes would be insufficient to change the outcome of the Senate election in Queensland," Mr Campbell said.

The result in the House of Representatives election in the Division of Fadden would also not be affected.

Mr Campbell said that the AEC had received legal advice which indicated that the postal ballots were no longer valid for the purpose of the 2004 election and that there was no basis on which they could be considered for a recount.

The AEC has written to the relevant candidates and also informed the Minister and other stakeholders in last year's election.

"I have appointed a former senior public servant to investigate the matter further under the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct and the AEC Standard of Conduct Policy," Mr Campbell said.

"The AEC regrets this serious error and will take steps to ensure that it does not happen again at future elections. This will involve both procedural review and discussions with staff about the need to identify, report and rectify problems promptly," said Mr Campbell.

Media contact:

Brien Hallett
Assistant Commissioner
Australian Electoral Commission
Ph: (02) 6271 4477
Mob: 0413 274 798