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Supreme Court allows appeal from Court of Appeal, and: (a) determines that a prospective electoral candidate had locus standi to challenge the constitutional validity of legislation that limited public funding to political parties where they failed to meet a 30% quota of female and 30% of male candidates, and where the candidate had been excluded from consideration by his political party because he was not a woman, on the grounds that his interests had prima facie been affected by the legislation in question; and (b) remits the matter to the High Court for full hearing on its merits.
O'Donnell J (nem diss): Challenge to constitutional validity of legislation - s. 17(4B) of the Electoral Act 1997, as inserted by s. 42(c) of the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 - locus standi - electoral law - regulation - funding of political parties - payment to political parties from 'Central Fund' - objective of securing a gender-balanced field of candidates - requirement that candidates from each party be at least 30% female and 30% male - reduction of funding if quota not reached - historic underrepresentation of women - applicant wished to be candidate - exclusion from nomination by reason of not being a woman - whether applicant had been adversely affected by operation of the section - causal nexus between operation of section and direction of party to exclude applicant from nomination - effect on interests, not rights - right to stand as a candidate - right to equal treatment - right to freedom of expression - whether adverse effect established by the evidence - discretion of political party - whether sufficiently affected - whether party 'coerced' - position of political party - failure of party to challenge legislation - jus tertii - whether a derivative claim - indirect effect - threshold nature of locus standi questions.
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