Representation And'electoral Systems: the Australian Experience
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25 REPRESENTATION AND'ELECTORAL SYSTEMS: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE Dr Geoffrey Gallop Lecturer in Social and Political Theory, Murdoch University There are a number of ways in which the issue of representation in Australian politics can be tackled. The focus could be on the political arguments that have been used in defending or attacking particular arrangements. Peter Loveday has observed that debates about representation have consistently been at the centre of political argument in Australia In a sense it has provided a vehicle for the expression of ideas in Australian politics. Too often, however. ! the parties and pressure groups have repeatedly fought about it wi t h their own advantage in v Lew much more than any abstract principle that citizens should have an equal voice 1 in the choice of their governments' . The fact of the matter is that electoral systems are important factors in determining the distribution of power within society. They are bound to be the source of political argument. An alternative approach would be to focus on the formal and in- formal structures and processes and find out who has actually been represented in the nation's ies, parliaments and administrative systems. Questions could then be asked about the under or over representation of various social groups within the political system. We would then gain a clearer understainding of the values . 2 and interests fostered by our 1cal leaders. Tied in with such a study would be an of the way in which we are 26 actually in the Are they independent trustees of the nation or de.Legat:es? Are we by different In this paper I intend to focus on the of electoral systems in Australia since federation. at the issue of represen~ tation in a broader Australia-wide context first the ground is cleared for an of the Western Australian experience. Two particular aspects of Australia~wide electoral systems interest me today The first concerns the right to vote and the second the mechanics of the voting system. A society's answer to the question of voting rights tells us who it believes constitutes the of the with the to be The institutions developed to determine how those votes are to be arranged and counted is crucial in determining the distribution of po1ltlca" teal, power ln"ht e country. 3 This leads me to a general observation about one of the historical tasks of democracy which was to find a consensus solution to the question of political power by everyone into the pol- itical process on the basis of equality. This allowed for a peaceful settlement of the inevitable disputes which arise in any society characterised by a reasonable degree of complexity. The search for the best electoral system is at the centre of the democratic project itself or~ as Vernon Bogdanor put it: 'Electoral systems are the instruments through which notions such as consent and representation are translated into reality' 4 There can be few areas of applied political theory which which are more In the process up to and the creation of the Commonwealth Parliament and government much of our present-day machinery was established. By 1909 all Commonwealth elections and state lower house elections involved all adults - men and 5 they were the to enrol and vote in federal elections 27 in 1949 if were entitled to do so in their state of residence arif they were or had been members of the defence forces it applied in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. In 1962 the to enrol and vote at federal elections was 6 extended to all ive of of residence. In 1964 and 1966 Western Australia and the process. In the 1970s the vote was also extended to all 7 eighteen year olds. As far as the national legislature and state lower houses are concerned then, the right of all adult persons to vote was achieved by way of two spurts of activity, one at the turn of the century and the next in the 1960s The story for state upper houses was 8 different. In 1900 New South Wales and had nominee Councils and South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia elected Councils. In the case of the elected Councils the franchise was restricted to owners of and the electoral systems were in favour of rural property. It was argued that the settled interests of the would need their own chambers as a check against the 's houses. At the national level a Senate. with r epresent atLon from each of the states was set up to the interests of the states in the federation and also the interests of the four smaller states. It wasn't until 1950 that the process of adult for the state upper houses began in Victoria. Victoria was followed by Western Australia (1963). Tasmania (1969). South Australia (1973). and New South Wales (1978). Queensland's nominee Council was abolished by a Labor government in 1921 way of a of the 9 house. Premier had abolition in New South Wales in 1926 and 1930 only to find that members of his own in the upper house were in no mood for suicide. In 1933 the Council was restructured on the basis of indirect election by the UAP government Under the new the total membership of both houses elected fifteen of the members every three years before the fifteen had retired became an In 1961 a 28 referendum on the ion of upper house was held in New South Wales. The Labor that the Council was not to review but to 'maintain the of the few the many I The LCP opposition maintained that the Council was 'a safeguard rash and extreme l O actions by the Assembly'. The 'No' case was victorious. It was one thing to establish that every person had a right to vote for the country's legislatures; quite another to establish the principle of one vote-one value. This brings us to the all important details. of the electoral system: just how do votes cast . 11 translate lnto seats? All lower houses in Australia with the exception of Tasmania use the of simple voting in single-member constituencies This method is also used in the Victorian, Western Australian and Tasmanian upper houses, Under such a system the drawing of electoral boundaries takes on a fundamental significance. New South Hales of 1893 Electoral Commis- sioners to ensure that any variation above or below the quota average number of electors per seat) would not be than 600. At that time this was 25 per cent Variation was to be allowed on the basis of iconll~unity or of interest lines of communication and physical The new Commonwealth parliament reduced the variation to 20 per cent above and below the In 1959 the Joint Committee on Constitutional Reform recommended a reduction to 10 per cent. This was carried at the joint sitt in 1974 In 1977 a was introduced seats with an area of more than 5000 square kilometres to have fewer votes than smaller seats The 10 percent variation from was retained. In 1983 a new Electoral Cotranfss Lon ~Alas established the Labor Government to redis- tributions on the basis of one-vote one-value with allowance for a 10 per cent variation from for individual seats At the same time an extra 23 seats '<Jere added to the House of 12 tatives. As '<Jell as it follows in the institutionalisation of wHh an allowance for 10 29 variation now South Australia 76 ~ New South Wales (1979) and Victoria ), It is seen to be embodiment of the of one~vote one~value. At state level the of electoral has been a central feature of life. in Western Australia in 1922 and to Victoria 26), New South Wales (1927) South Australia (1929) and ). In Victoria zoning until 1953 when the Cain Government with the support of Liberal electoral reformers carried through their two~ for-sone redistribution by which each federal electorate wa s divided into two state electorates In 1965 Bolte re~introduced zoning but in such a way that it was ssible for minority ministries to emerge had before 1953. 13 In New South Wales has been both Labor and non-Labor ies since it was introduced a Nationalist~ Country Party coalition in 1927 Up to 1949 and Newcastle voters were penalised by a which favoured rural voters. For the next years voters in Newcastle and were advantaged by included in the Area. In 1969 these two cities were combined with to form a new Central Area and 14 the Country Area became almost rural. In South Australia the so-called which established a 2 1 ratio bettwen country and itan seats had a devastat effect on Labor representation It has been estimated B'l ewet t and Jaensch that Labor's share of the vote entitled it to a in parliament ! in all but two South Australian elections between 1944 and 1965 ',15 In 1949 Labor introduced ic in Queensland and it has been retained since. Init the non-Labor parties criticized the , not that the by 49,2 per cent 46.9 per cent in 1950 but it ~,16 on in modified from when came to a f rlce. It shou.OUl I d be noted that before was introduced in each of these states there had been of rural bias built into the electoral Looking at overall can be observed that a number of 30 of distinctions have been used 1) between the and suburbs and rest of the 2) between cities and towns and the rest of the area; and 3) between different interest areas within the non~ area Differential quotas were then We should note that it is possible to have zones and preserve the of one~vote one- value.