Election comment in ‘election period’

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Now that nominations for the Alpine council election have closed we have entered what is called ‘the election period’. Under the Local Government Act all comments published on ‘electoral matters’ during the election period must be properly authored. Please read the rest of this post:

This is the relevant section of the Act:

During an election period, all articles or letters containing electoral matter, which are printed, published or distributed in a newspaper, circular or pamphlet must include the name and address of the author at the end. However, letters to a newspaper simply have to include the author’s name and the suburb or locality in which the author’s address is located.

The identification requirement does not apply to a newspaper leading article or an article that is solely a report of a meeting.

Electoral Matter Means matter which is intended or likely to affect voting in an election. This includes matter which contains an express or implicit reference to, a comment on:
• the election; or
• a candidate in the election; or
• an issue submitted to, or otherwise before, the voters in connection with the election.

Please note:

While the above does not specifically state that it applies to comments made on personal blogs like this one, I ask that all comments made on ‘electoral matter’ (as per the definition above) carry the author’s name and locality at the end of the comment.