Dear Editor
I intended to nominate as an independent candidate (individual ‘non party’) for Franklin in the upcoming Tasmanian election. After a hectic few days collecting more than the required signatures on the nomination form and donations for the $400 deposit, I presented to the TEC office at 169 Main Road Moonah in person at approximately 1135am on Tuesday 26th of June; 25 minutes before the deadline of 1200hrs.
On arrival I was told by the TEC that the Moonah office was for “party” nominations only, independent candidates were required to present to the Cambridge office. The TEC employee wrote the Cambridge address (without the word Cambridge on it) on a piece of paper with the Moonah letterhead, and I headed off to Cambridge.
Unfortunately I arrived to Cambridge at approximately 1158, couldn’t find the TEC office, and by 1202 realised I had missed the missed the strict 1200 deadline.
I was devastated and proceeded to txt and call my supporters to tell them the news.
Once I had a chance to reflect at home, I opened the TEC webpage to see where I had missed the instructions that advised individual ‘non party’ to present to the Cambridge address as I felt that I had read the website, the candidates handbook, and the individual ‘non party’ nomination form thoroughly.
The only address I had seen previously was the Moonah address, and there is no address in the hand book or on the individual ‘non party’ nomination form.
I found that, as before when I clicked on the following link https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/
There it clearly states the Moonah address only.
I eventually found reference to the Cambridge address at the bottom of a page after clicking what I believe is 4 links, but I have struggled to find it again.
I rang the TEC on Friday the 27th to explain the above. They informed me that the Moonah office, the “main” office, used to handle all party nominations “not that long ago. When I asked if the Cambridge office had been set up after the last election 14 months ago, they said “I can neither confirm or deny that.”
I also asked if I could make a complaint, and was told that there wasn’t a complaints system as such but I could email to advise that the required information was not easily accessible.
In the lead up to the deadline, I made two calls to the TEC and sent two emails. On the phone I found that TEC did not have the answers readily available, put me on hold for long periods, and stated that they were very busy so please email, leaving me without the information I requested, unless I sent an email.
After some reflection and discussion with supporters, I would like to raise the following concerns and questions:
Nowhere on the TEC site does it mention that the Moonah office is for ‘party’ nominations?
Why can’t the ‘main’ Moonah office take individual ‘non party’ nomination forms for collection?
If the TEC moves the physical location of an office, should it not be required to advise the electorate in writing such as in a gazette? Especially if the move has taken place since the last election and why is the ‘correct’ information so hard to find?
However, more importantly,
- why is the address listed in multiple locations as 169 Main Road Moonah, while the Cambridge address is omitted as in the link I shared under ‘how to lodge this form
- why has the location of the TEC been moved to a backstreet of an industrial complex in the farthest region of the Franklin electorate?
- why isn’t the addresses of the relevant offices listed in the ‘candidates handbook’ https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/
house-of-assembly/assets/HoA_ Candidate_Information_Booklet. pdf - why was I not advised of a complaints process?
Several independent candidates and members have since been contacted and advised of the above, some have been publicly critical of the TEC and its processes in the past.
I believe that in the interest of fairness and transparency, the TEC has an obligation to the electorate to provide information that is accurate, unambiguous and easy to access.
I wrote to the TEC to request that my nomination form be processed as a matter of urgency.
They sent a lengthy response and refused to consider my request.
– Anthony Polson, intending candidate for Franklin
Statement from the Tasmanian Electoral Commission in response
The TEC has already provided Mr Polson with responses to these questions and has reproduced the same responses below for you to ensure a consistent understanding of nomination requirements.
Nominations for the 2025 House of Assembly election closed at noon on Thursday 26 June 2025.
This is an immutable deadline, set by legislation, and there is no process for accepting late nominations.
The requirement for nomination forms to be lodged with the returning officer is also set by legislation. Specifically, section 77(4)(f) of the Electoral Act 2004 requires that, for a person nominating on an Assembly ballot paper in a group not under the name of a registered party (as Mr Polson was attempting to do), the nomination is to be ‘received by the returning officer for the division…before noon on nomination day’.
This requirement to provide the nomination form to the returning officer, rather than to the Electoral Commissioner at Moonah, is included in the Candidate Handbook for the 2025 House of Assembly elections at page 5 under a heading ‘Lodging the nomination’. This states that, consistent with section 77, the completed form and deposit must be received by the returning officer by noon on nomination day. The handbook also includes a note on page 6 that early lodgement (before nomination day) will allow time to address any problems that arise.
The front page of the nomination form itself, under the heading ‘How to lodge this form’ reiterates the requirement that the form, accompanied by a $400 deposit in cash or bank cheque, is to be received by the returning officer for the relevant division before noon on nomination day.
The details of the location of the returning officers is available on the same TEC web page where the nomination form is available. Immediately below the links to the forms is a section headed ‘How to lodge your nomination’. In this section, the names, addresses and direct contact details of the returning officers for each division are published. This web page also indicates that only party nominations can be received by the Electoral Commissioner at Moonah. Other nominations cannot be received at Moonah because the returning officers, who need to receive them as set out in legislation, are not located here.
While the TEC has a year-round presence in Moonah, this site cannot feasibly accommodate the number of staff required for an election event.
Therefore, the TEC leases a number of temporary offices for elections to accommodate all necessary electoral processes and staff for an event of this scale, including the volume of nominations. The addresses of these divisional electoral offices can vary from event to event, depending on availability and suitability. Because the addresses can change for different events, they are published on the web site (rather than on forms or in handbooks) so that they can be readily updated for each election event.
The Cambridge office has been used at several election events since 2024 (including for the 2024 House of Assembly election). This office was chosen as it has good functionality for the large amount of administrative and logistical tasks required for a House of Assembly election. Currently, it is serving as the election office for returning officers from three divisions – Clark, Franklin and Lyons. All nominees in these divisions, other than party nominees, needed to attend Cambridge to present their nomination form and fee to their respective returning officers.
Finally, Mr Polson references a form under the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Act 2023 to register a candidate for the purposes of incurring electoral expenditure or accepting political donations, which can be returned to the TEC’s Moonah address. This form operates under a different Act with no involvement of the returning officers, and that is why the return address is different.
Legislation and Regulation Team, Tasmanian Electoral Commission
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