❓ Mr. Love questions additional payments to returning officers after the state election, alleging payments were made recently. Minister Michael acknowledges the payments, attributing them to increased workload due to issues being investigated by a special inquiry, and confirms the Acting Electoral Commissioner approved top-ups.
AnsweredQoN 285Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Local government elections285.Mr Shane Loveto
theMinister for Electoral Affairs:I have a
supplementary question. The minister did not answer the third part of the
question, so I restate it. Is it correct that additional and significant
payments were made as recently as last week to returning officers who
officiated at the last state election?
theMinister for Electoral Affairs:I have a
supplementary question. The minister did not answer the third part of the
question, so I restate it. Is it correct that additional and significant
payments were made as recently as last week to returning officers who
officiated at the last state election?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
26 June 2025
Response time
0 days
Mr David Michael replied:As the member would
know, importantly, the commission operates independently from the minister for
many of these things. I am aware that returning officers for the state election
sign on to an agreement to do their job based on bands for a certain amount of
money. Having said that, I know that some returning officers were concerned
that because of some of the issues they faced in their electorate, which are
probably to do with some of those issues that the special inquiry is looking
into, they probably did more work than they thought they were going to do. The Acting
Electoral Commissioner has looked at that. I understand that he has topped up nearly
all returning officers in the state to make sure that they get a little bit
more money for the work they did running our state election.The Speaker:Members, that concludes question time.
Local government elections
know, importantly, the commission operates independently from the minister for
many of these things. I am aware that returning officers for the state election
sign on to an agreement to do their job based on bands for a certain amount of
money. Having said that, I know that some returning officers were concerned
that because of some of the issues they faced in their electorate, which are
probably to do with some of those issues that the special inquiry is looking
into, they probably did more work than they thought they were going to do. The Acting
Electoral Commissioner has looked at that. I understand that he has topped up nearly
all returning officers in the state to make sure that they get a little bit
more money for the work they did running our state election.The Speaker:Members, that concludes question time.
Local government elections
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.