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The 1996 Lindsay by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Lindsay in New South Wales on 19 October 1996. The by-election was triggered by a ruling of the Court of Disputed Returns that the election of the Liberal Party candidate Jackie Kelly was invalid, due to her citizenship status and employment by the Royal Australian Air Force. The writ for the by-election was issued on 16 September 1996.
Jackie Kelly won the seat of Lindsay from Labor's Ross Free at the 1996 federal election – a surprise win as Lindsay was considered a safe Labor seat. [1] However, Kelly's election was challenged on two counts: that she had not renounced her New Zealand citizenship (Section 44 of the Australian Constitution states that "a subject or citizen of a foreign power" is ineligible to stand for federal parliament), [2] and that at the time of her nomination as a candidate she was employed as a legal officer for the Royal Australian Air Force (s. 44 also prohibits any person who "holds any office of profit under the Crown" from election to parliament). [3] The Court of Disputed Returns ruled on 11 September 1996 that Kelly's election was indeed constitutionally invalid, and a by-election was called several days later. Kelly, by this time, had resigned from the RAAF and renounced her New Zealand citizenship, and was eligible to stand as a candidate in the by-election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Jackie Kelly | 34,840 | 49.21 | +6.69 | |
| Labor | Ross Free | 23,758 | 33.56 | −6.76 | |
| Against Further Immigration | Vince Townsend | 4,224 | 5.97 | +3.24 | |
| Shooters | Rodney Franich | 2,042 | 2.88 | +2.88 | |
| Greens | Lesley Edwards | 1,502 | 2.12 | −2.29 | |
| Call to Australia | Brian Grigg | 1,254 | 1.77 | −0.39 | |
| Democrats | Stephen Lear | 1,182 | 1.67 | −4.92 | |
| Independent | Kay Anne Vella | 933 | 1.32 | +1.32 | |
| Independent | Vicki Aird | 488 | 0.69 | +0.69 | |
| Independent | Steve Grim-Reaper | 270 | 0.38 | +0.38 | |
| Independent | Robert Frank Peacey | 156 | 0.22 | +0.22 | |
| Family Law Reform | David Archibald | 150 | 0.21 | +0.21 | |
| Total formal votes | 70,799 | 96.36 | −0.06 | ||
| Informal votes | 2,678 | 3.64 | +0.06 | ||
| Turnout | 73,477 | 89.98 | −6.14 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal | Jackie Kelly | 40,037 | 56.55 | +4.97 | |
| Labor | Ross Free | 30,762 | 43.45 | −4.97 | |
| Liberal hold | Swing | +4.97 | |||
Jackie Kelly won the by-election with an even larger majority – a swing of 4.97% in her favour.
Jacqueline Marie Kelly is a former Australian politician who served as a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 until November 2007, representing the Division of Lindsay, New South Wales.
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