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VICTORIAN EXCEPTIONALISM the Beautiful Proportional Representation System by Which Victoria's Legislative Co

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VICTORIAN EXCEPTIONALISM the Beautiful Proportional Representation System by Which Victoria's Legislative Co EMC Submission No. 12 1 Supplementary Submission 2 Received 19 September 2019 CHAPTER TWELVE: VICTORIAN EXCEPTIONALISM The beautiful proportional representation system by which Victoria’s Legislative Council is elected has applied at four elections, those held on 25 November 2006, 27 November 2010, 29 November 2014 and 24 November 2018. The explanation for those dates is the fact of Victorian State elections being fixed to be held on the last Saturday in November every four years when the entire collection of Victorian politicians is elected. Victoria and Western Australia supply the only cases of Australian bicameral parliaments in which there is no rotation of upper houses members. The criteria I apply to decide upon the merits of the different proportional representation (PR) systems cause me to say that Tasmania’s Hare-Clark deserves a high distinction mark, the ACT Hare- Clark a distinction, Victoria a credit with 65 per cent, New South Wales a pass with 58 per cent, South Australia a pass with 51 per cent and fail marks for the Senate system (a miserable 30 per cent) and the Legislative Council system of Western Australia which gets a mark of 45 per cent from me. As I explain in the third chapter on the Extreme Vetting to which my most recent federal submission was subjected I have also described these systems in terms of female beauty. I wrote: Therefore, I describe Tasmania’s Hare-Clark system as “gorgeous”, the ACT variant of Hare- Clark as “very beautiful”, the Victorian Legislative Council system as “beautiful”, the New South Wales and South Australian Legislative Council systems as “plain but okay, I suppose”, the Western Australian Legislative Council system as “unattractive” and the Senate system as “ugly”. That I have such a positive view of Victoria’s system does not mean I advocate no reform. Sometimes it has been true that for the time being I have advocated no reform. That was the case during Victoria’s 58th Parliament, the one elected in 2014. I would always strongly oppose any reform that seeks to put lipstick on the pig of above-the-line voting. However, when my Senate and WA reforms are implemented I would advocate that Victoria copy Western Australia, having a system that would be the same, save only that district magnitude would continue to be five in Victoria but would be seven in Western Australia. The two States have systems in common in that there are three contrivances as part of above-the-line voting whereas the Senate system has the abomination of four contrivances. All of those contrivances should be eliminated either immediately or over a longer term. That I have such a positive view of Victoria’s system does not mean I pretend to have been a participant in its creation. I was not such a participant. I was not, in fact, particularly critical of the immediate past system. However, once PR was in place I became an admirer of this present system. My reason for not being particularly opposed to the “old” system was simply due to my acknowledgement that every Victorian State politician was then directly chosen by the people. My main democratic principle is that every member of parliament should be directly elected – hence my lack of hostility to the old system that I now describe. History of Victorian Legislative Council System Up to and including the nineteen forties Victoria’s Legislative Council voting system was not democratic. It was based on a restricted franchise in which the possession of property was the main source of the elector’s entitlement to vote. In 1952, however, universal adult franchise was legislated. The right to vote became identical for the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. The system was messy, however, which led to some reforms being implemented by the government led by Sir Henry Bolte. It was a Liberal Party majority government from 1955 to 1972. He was succeeded by Sir Rupert Hamer from 1972 to 1981. The last Premier leading a Liberal 2 majority government was Mr Lindsay Thompson. He became Premier in June 1981 but led his government to defeat in April 1982. Beginning with the election in July 1961 members of the two houses have been elected on the same day. Two ballot papers were handed to each elector with voting and counting of votes being exactly the same in principle, namely the full preferential vote for one person to be elected. Up to and including the 1964 election, there were 17 provinces (the boundaries of which had applied since 1936) each electing two members by rotation for terms of six years. So the total membership of the Council was 34. At the elections of 1967, 1970 and 1973 there were 18 provinces, each electing two members by rotation. So the total membership of the Council was 36. However, from 1967 to 1970 the Council was composed of 17 members elected from the “old” provinces in June 1964 and 18 members elected from the ”new” provinces in April 1967. Hence the total was 35. The “new” provinces came fully into force at the May 1970 election bringing the total membership up to 36. From 1976 to 1979 the Legislative Council had 40 members of which the 22 “new” province members enjoyed terms extending until 1982 while the 18 “old” province members enjoyed terms extending until 1979 in which year the size of the Council grew to 44. Every member always came from the Labor Party, the Liberal Party or the National Party. Casual vacancies were filled through the normal by-election process. The Labor governments of John Cain and Steve Bracks were reformers. Between them they instituted full “one vote one value” electoral systems, fixed terms of four years and PR elections for the Legislative Council. However, in the matter of PR for the Council the Cain-Kirner government failed whereas the later Bracks-Brumby government succeeded. For the record John Cain Junior was Premier from 8 April 1982 to 9 August 1990 and Joan Kirner from 9 August 1990 to 6 October 1992. Later on Steve Bracks was Premier from 19 October 1999 to 30 July 2007 and John Brumby from 30 July 2007 to 2 December 2010. Intervening between those Labor governments was the premiership of Jeff Kennett of the Liberal Party (in coalition with the Nationals) whose term lasted from 6 October 1992 to 19 October 1999. During the last term of majority Liberal Party government (1979-82) the Legislative Council was composed of 27 Liberals, 13 Labor members and four Nationals. The Electoral Provinces of Ballarat, Bendigo, Boronia, Central Highlands, East Yarra, Gippsland, Higinbotham, Monash, Nunawading, South Eastern, Templestowe and Western had two Liberal members, giving the Liberals 24 members. The other three had been elected in 1976 in Chelsea, Geelong and Waverley. The 13 Labor members consisted of the two members for each of Doutta Galla, Melbourne, Melbourne North, Melbourne West and Thomastown, making ten members, plus one each elected in 1979 from Chelsea, Geelong and Waverley. The Electoral Provinces of North Eastern and North Western were solidly National, having elected members of that party in both 1976 and 1979. In other words only three of the 22 provinces (Chelsea, Geelong and Waverley) had split representation. There is a simple explanation for the lack of a Labor majority in the Legislative Council during the first term (1982-85) of the government of John Cain Junior. Elected in 1979 were only eight Labor members compared with 12 Liberals and two Nationals. In 1982 Labor won 12 seats, the Liberals eight and the Nationals two. That produced a total Council of 20 Labor members, 20 Liberals and four Nationals. The provinces won in 1982 by Labor were Boronia, Chelsea, Doutta Galla, Geelong, Gippsland, Melbourne, Melbourne North, Melbourne West, Nunawading, Templestowe, Thomastown and Waverley. That was a respectable performance by Labor given that the boundaries were still malapportioned in favour of country areas. 3 During Cain’s first term it was possible for Labor to implement a redistribution based on “one vote one value” for both houses. Henceforth there would be 88 electoral districts for the Legislative Assembly and 22 provinces for the Legislative Council. Each province would consist of four complete and contiguous Assembly districts. Thus Ballarat Province would consist of the districts of Ballarat North, Ballarat South, Gisborne and Ripon, Boronia Province would consist of Forest Hill. Glen Waverley, Knox and Wantirna and North Western Province would consist of Bendigo East, Bendigo West, Mildura and Swan Hill. The election in March 1985 was a bitter disappointment for both Labor and the Democrats. Not expecting that there would be a noticeable swing against Labor, the two parties entered into an arrangement whereby Democrat preferences would favour Labor in the expectation/hope that Labor would gain a Legislative Council majority and bring in PR. The Democrats did not contest a single seat in the Assembly, concentrating on the Council where they contested 14 seats and gained four per cent of the vote. Both Labor and the Liberals contested all 22 seats with Labor winning 11, the Liberals eight and Nationals three. Theoretically that gave Labor a total of 23 seats when the new members took their seats in July. In those days the rotation system was essentially the same as is still the case for the Senate. Strictly speaking the result in 1985 was that Labor won the Provinces of Boronia, Chelsea, Doutta Galla, Eumemmerring, Geelong, Jika Jika, Melbourne, Melbourne North, Melbourne West, Nunawading and Waverley, eleven in all. A problem for Labor, however, was that it needed to provide the President of the Council so, on the floor of the chamber, the numbers would be 22 Labor, 16 Liberals and five Nationals, a majority of only one seat.
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