Territory Stories

The remonstrance

Details:

Title

The remonstrance

Creator

Northern Territory. Parliament. Legislative Council

Collection

Historical Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT

Date

1962

Description

Presentation of grievances on behalf of the people of the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth of Australia stating that the political rights of the citizens of the Northern Territory are inferior to those of the rest of the nation. This document was created in late 1962.

Language

English

Subject

Northern Territory -- Politics and government -- 1945-1965; Petition, Right Of -- Northern Territory

Publisher name

Legislative Council for the Northern Territory

Place of publication

Darwin

Format

[11] pages ; 30 cm.

File type

application/pdf

Use

Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright owner

Northern Territory Government

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/213543

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/715058

Page content

- 2 THE GRIEVANCES 1. The political rights of the citizens of the Northern Territory are inferior to those of other citizens of Australia. As witness: The historical record shows that in 1890 the people of the 'Territory, as electors of the electorate of Grey, had full voting rights and representation in the South Australian Parliament and on the formation of the Commonwealth in 1901 received full voting rights and representation in the Commonwealth Parliament as electors of the Federal Electorate of Grey. Since 1st January, 1911, the people of the Northern Territory have been without representation in the Senate and their representative in the House of Representatives has been unable fully to express the will of the people because of voting disabilities imposed on him by the Northern Territory Representation Act. The Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1947, which was only enacted after much agitation by residents of the Territory, established the Legislative Council for the Northern Territory with power to make Ordinances for peace, order and good government subject to certain conditions and with powers of disallowance resident in the Governor-General. Only after further political unrest and agitation was this Act liberalised in 1959 to provide that membership of the Council should be nine appointed members and eight elected instead of seven appointed and six elected. It was further provided that three of the nine appointed members should not be from the Commonwealth Public Service. At this time the voting disabilities for the Member for the Northern Territory in the House of Representatives were lessened to allow him to vote on matters relating solely to the Northern Territory. A Bill to amend the Northern Territory Representation Act and providing for a full vote for the Member for the Northern Territory, introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament some months ago, has not been proceeded with. Therefore (1) The people of the Northern Territory remain without representation in the Senate. (2) The people of the Northern Territory remain without representation in the House of Representatives carrying with it the decisive sanction of a vote in Parliamen t . (3) The nBjority of the members of the Legislative Council are not responsible to the electors of the Northern Territory.