The Chief Electoral Officer has forwarded for advice the following memorandum:

A.B., born in Syria and therefore presumably an aboriginal native of Asia within the meaning of section 4 of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 (now repealed) and section 39, sub-section (5) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1919, arrived in Australia in 1894 and was naturalized in the Colony of Victoria in 1900. Six months after he obtained naturalization he became enrolled as an elector of the Legislative Assembly and retained his enrolment until the end of 1906 when he went to Syria to dispose of property but, he states, with the full intention of returning to Australia when his business was completed. He returned to Australia after an absence of fourteen years-in 1920. Probably during the latter six years, 1914 to 1920, he was prevented from returning owing to the recent war.

He has been again enrolled as an elector of the State Legislative Assembly, and has lodged a claim for enrolment as an elector of the Commonwealth. The Divisional Returning Officer seeks advice as to whether, having regard to the circumstances, he is disqualified from enrolment under the provisions of section 39 (5) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1919.

Section 39 (5) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1919 provides as follows:

(5) No aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, Africa, or the Islands of the Pacific (except New Zealand) shall be entitled to have his name placed on or retained on any roll or to vote at any Senate election or House of Representatives election unless so entitled under section forty-one of the Constitution.

Section 41 of the Constitution provides as follows:

No adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a State shall, while the right continues, be prevented by any law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.

A.B. had a right in 1901 to vote at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a State, and in my opinion that right still 'continues', within the meaning of section 41 of the Constitution, notwithstanding that its exercise was interrupted by his absence. He is therefore, in my opinion, entitled to enrolment under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1919.

[Vol. 18, p. 154]