DA Australia national officer elections were held at the 2025 Annual General Meeting on Sat May 3, 2025 to fill the following DA Australia Executive Committee positions:

• Chairperson

• Vice Chairperson

• Secretary

• Treasurer

• Legal Counsel

• 5 DPCA Voting Representatives

The election process began on March 8 when the DA Australia Chairperson appointed the following DA Australia members to the 2025 Nominations Committee:  

John Chabowski of DAA-Vic

Kate Eaton of DAA-NSW

Lisa Lombardi of DAA-QLD

Susan Wolfe of DAA-NSW

Nominations opened on Saturday March 15.

Nominations closed on Saturday April 19.

Early voting commenced with the distribution of electronic ballots to DA Australia members on Wednesday April 23.

Early voting closed on Friday May 2.

As only one candidate was placed into nomination for each of the offices of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, this motion to proceed to a vote by acclamation was made and seconded:

The motion is that we elect Jasper Lee of ACT as Chairperson, Tara Hardiman of NSW as Vice Chairperson, Susan Mackenzie of Vic as Secretary and Amy Saha of NSW as Treasurer of DA Australia by unanimous consent.  

As there was no opposition to the motion, the motion carried and the AGM elected by unanimous consent:

Jasper Lee of DA Australia - ACT as chairperson of DA Australia

Tara Hardiman of DA Australia - NSW as Vice Chairperson of DA Australia

Susan Mackenzie of DA Australia - Vic as Secretary of DA Australia

Amy Saha of DA Australia - NSW as Treasurer of DA Australia.

There were no candidates for the office of DA Australia Legal Counsel.  Nominations were invited from the floor.  No nominations were made.  The office of Legal Counsel is vacant.

DA Australia is represented at the DPCA, the governing body of Democrats Abroad, by our Chair and Vice Chair plus 5 other DA Australia members elected to hold the position of DPCA Voting Representative for a period of 2 years.  

The DPCA Charter says in regard to the election of Voting Representatives - (Section 3.6 (a)(g))

If a Country Committee has more than one (1) Voting Representative, gender balance shall apply to that Country Committee’s delegation of Voting Representatives.

The DA Australia By Laws say in regard to the election of Voting Representatives - (Article 11.4)

Gender balance rules of the Democratic Party apply to the DA Australia DPCA Voting Representatives and any alternates.

Therefore our DPCA voting delegation must have gender balance.  

Six candidates were placed into nomination to fill the 5 Voting Representative positions: 2 male nominees and 4 female nominees.   

Voters were asked to choose 5 delegates from the list of 6 candidates on the ballot and informed that the top 3 vote getters from each gender would be declared the winners.

A total of 42 ballots were cast by eligible voting members prior to the AGM, and 11 votes were cast at the meeting.  

Of those 53 ballots, five were spoiled due to members voting for more than five candidates.  One voter cast 3 ballots; the first 2 ballots cast were spoiled and the 3rd was counted.  

The final vote tally is as follows:

Male Nominees Female Nominees

Michael Ramos - 40 Carmelan Polce - 39

Paul LaFreniere - 19 Elizabeth Cage - 38

Susan Mackenzie - 32

Judy Grobstein - 30

The Voting Representatives elected to fill the DA Australia’s DPCA delegation are:  Michael Ramos, Carmelan Polce, Elizabeth Cage, Susan Mackenzie, and Paul LaFreniere. Judy Grobstein will be designated as an Alternate. The Alternate is available to serve should any of the Voting Representatives resign or otherwise become unavailable to act as Voting Representative.  A vote tally sheet is available upon request.

John Chabowski, Teller of Elections

Susan Wolfe, Technical Assistant to the Teller of Elections

4 May 2025