The holding of the election on 7 September, 2013 means the local government referendum has been suspended and is now unlikely to proceed. Much of the growing disapproval about the referendum can be attributed to the work of the Citizens' Vote NO committee.
This committee prepared the official no case approved by the MP's and Senators, and ran a major media campaign. While ACM took no position on the referendum, the committee included some prominent ACM people and those who campaigned for the NO case in 1999.
Pending federal funding, the committee raised its own money and set up a corporation, website and facebook pages. Media releases were issued frequently and members appeared regularly in the media.
…..ACM's interest….
It was chaired by Julian Leeser and included the Hon Nick Minchin, the Hon Peter Reith, the Hon Bill Hassel, Alex Hawke MP, Ben Davies, Ben Riley, Damien Creedon; Darren Bark; David Elliott MP, Professor David Flint; Frank Lindsey; the Hon Gary Johns; Jai Martinkovits; Leigh Gibbens, Malcolm Badgery, Paul Leven, Rene Hidding MP, Sashika Jayewardene, Senator Dean Smith, Simon Price, Tim Wilson, and Timothy Andrews.
The Committee will not wind up but is determined:
· to get all political parties to resolve to oppose any further attempts at local government referendum and
· to change the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act to ensure equal funding for the YES and NO case (if a NO case exists) and ensure the yes/no booklet goes to every elector with the yes and no case on opposite pages. ( These matters were a subject of an ACM submission to the (Ddreyfus Committee)