ACT government
In the ACT, we have a Legislative Assembly which is comprised of 17 members elected by three multi-member electorates. This is because no matter how you would slice the territory up, the Labor party would win all the seats in a single-member electorate system.
The problem comes when someone retires. This happened recently, when Chief Minister Jon Stanhope retired. The procedure is to run an automatic run-off election, using the results from the last election in 2008. The next one is not due until next year.
Of course, 2008 was a long time ago. When recounted, with Stanhope's votes redistributed to the voters' next preferences, the next most popular candidate was a guy called David Peebles. Unfortunately, he had recently accepted a posting to the Solomon Islands. He turned the politician job down. Next came a dentist called Chris Bourke. He was doing work in remote areas and it took a long time to find him. For a while it looked like he would be passed over in favour of Adina Cirson, a ministerial staffer. However, with some effort, they managed to find Bourke and he accepted the job. He becomes the ACT government's first aboriginal member.
Assembly welcomes first Indigenous MLA
The problem comes when someone retires. This happened recently, when Chief Minister Jon Stanhope retired. The procedure is to run an automatic run-off election, using the results from the last election in 2008. The next one is not due until next year.
Of course, 2008 was a long time ago. When recounted, with Stanhope's votes redistributed to the voters' next preferences, the next most popular candidate was a guy called David Peebles. Unfortunately, he had recently accepted a posting to the Solomon Islands. He turned the politician job down. Next came a dentist called Chris Bourke. He was doing work in remote areas and it took a long time to find him. For a while it looked like he would be passed over in favour of Adina Cirson, a ministerial staffer. However, with some effort, they managed to find Bourke and he accepted the job. He becomes the ACT government's first aboriginal member.
Assembly welcomes first Indigenous MLA