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 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 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 , , and . In 1962 the to enrol and vote at federal elections was 6 extended to all ive of of residence. In 1964 and 1966 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). '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 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 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 '

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 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. A of have been marshalled to defend the Australian method of It is said to be necessary if the interests of the are to be and if from these areas are to perform their tasks to others it is a reflection of the interest-based nature of our life. Equal of influence between the interests associated with various is said to be more than a cocu~a.~ion of the is some that the areas of the contain the ive sectors of the economy and the wisdom of the and to be an influence on ics than mere numbers would indicate. In recent years those who such have had notable successes in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. and Western Australia are the only states left with

Recent has also led to a renewed interest in the of which is specif__ '_~""J to ensure that iament mirrors the divisions within the at The has been in for the Tasmanian lower house since 1907 was utilised in New South Wales in the 1920s and was introduced for the Senate in 1948. It is icant that South Australia and New South Wales have intro~ 17 duced the PR model for their upper houses. It means there is now a clear ion of the way in which a state upper house can be structured to s house of review role without the of one~vote one~value, The ice of elections has been to allow for a of in the upper house One question remains: ought PR to be based it in Tasmania and for

the Senate or should there state or nation~wide electorate? If is even if the of one-value - the that votes will not translate into seats.

The Tasmanian upper house is elected nineteen constituencies Elections are held each year in three seats at a time and four once every six years, The electorates have changed little over the years and vary in size. It remains unique in that there is a tradition of politics, One of the Councillors described himself and his as a mongrel breed. Still. as W A observed:

it no defends the conservative and even react , interests as it was wont to do the first years of its existence it still acts, albeit in defence of vested interests. I

One can see with the situation which in local in Western Australia,

We see. then that there has been both and in Australian of ion the twentieth upper houses have been resistant to pressures for abolition Besides the territories is the state with unicameral There has however, been cont ..LLLCL.LLL5 pressure to the nature of the upper houses. in the la years. The first step to move away from a ied franchise and the second. in South Australia and New South Wales to reconstitute the upper house on the basis of PRe The the nature of the elections to the Senate in 1948 has to be of ~~~u~Licance in the evolution of our institutions that a model of how a house of review could be and how could function. It will be 32

to see if the Cain government in Victoria for reform or abolition It is to win in the Council after the next state election.

In the second lower houses have continued to be elected on the basis of in electorates. The Tasmanian model is seen as useful for upper houses • not for the house from whLch the will emerge. This has made the a central issue Australia. The debat.e has focussed on t.he of electoral and rural on this basic continues However there has been an that the residents of the and younger adults should be into the of citizens who are to be

In all these be remembered that ical are the of the process it is the which are in have not been reluctant to introduce or defend which favour their candidates, at the as a whole it has been the wh Lch has 19 most from rural Its absence in South Australia allowed the Liberal to reap all the benefits. Both of the or have in and have been and losers from malaUP,oL'tionment.

The 1960s and 1970 marked a watershed in that Labor ~ at all levels ~ to take up the case for electoral reform. In 1974 it attempted to insert a new clause into the which would have all state and federal to be elected from electoral districts. At the same time reformism for abolitionism in of upper houses, For obvious historical reasons South Australia led the way. If the issue was confused in earlier times it is now clearer On the one side are Labor and the various Liberal reformers who favour one~

one~value electoral districts for lower houses and ion upper houses, On the other side 33

are the Nationals and Liberal conservatives who favour a continu- ation of rural There are differences the defendersof the status quo in to the to which rural weighting can be allowed. There is also a debate amongst the advocates of one~vote one~value on the of proportional for lower houses The Democrats and 20 some Labor favour such an ion. none of the the imacy of the states as constituencies for the election of the Senate. Academic commentators on the other hand have described the Senate as 'an affront to democracy' and an indefensible instrument of electoral

~nequa, I'lty, i 21 The f act t hat sue h have ha d I'ltt1e success in the real world of ~ULLbLCS would indicate the of federalist ideology within the nation's ical culture.

ENDNOTES i . Peter Loveday 'Australian Political in Richard Lucy .), The Pieces of Politics (2nd ed Macmillan. South Melbourne 1979), p 6

2. See. for Marian Sawer and Marian Sin~s A Woman's Place: Women and Politics in Australia Allen and Unwl.n , 1984)

3. On electoral and their itical u"'-6u",-.Licance see Colin Hughes 'Electoral • in J.S. Western and P.R. Wilson ) , in Turbulent Environments of Queensland Press. St Lucia. 1977) pp.183~97

4. Vernon 'Introduction in Vernon and David Butler ) and Elec ions: Electoral and . ------~'--...__ ._~~~ Their Political Univers Press Cambridge 1983). p.l

5. Vot s were extended to women in 1894 (South

1902 (NSW and 1903 s 1905 1907 Australia) and 1909 The secret ballot had been achieved the colonies 1877 and abolished 1907. LF Australian National Government (3rd ed, Hawthorn 1974) p.137 6. See House of Rep r e senta t Lve.s from the Select Committee on )

7. year aIds first the vote in NSW and WA in 1970. S.A foLl.owed in 1971 and the rest of the states and Commonwealth in 1973

8. See Houses of the Australian States', Current Affairs Bulletin 49 1972). pp 218~26 and G S. Reid ,) The Role of the of the Fourth Annual of the Australasian Parliament of Tasmania. 1983)

9 See W.G McMinn, A Constitutional of Australia -----~------~---,-~-- (Oxford Press Melbourne pp, 150~51)

10, lbid•• pp 148-50

11. For a very useful overview see H,V The Politics of Australian (2nd ed. , Macmillan South Helbourne.

1978). ch c l Z; See also Joan eia.tappcY' t i.onmentil Australian Politics 3 1968 • pp .133-47

12. See Parliament of the Con~onwealth of Australia, Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform First Government Service. Canberra 1983). one deals with s at the Commonwealth level from 1900 to 1983

13. See Jean Holmes. The Government of Victoria of Press St Lucia. 1976) ch,S

See R S, Parker. The Government of New South Wales of Press St Lucia. 1978) ch.2

15, N BleHett and D. Jaensch The Politics of Transition p,19, See also Dean Jaensch The Government of South Australia of Press, St Lucia. 1977) ch.3

16 See Colin • The Government of of Press St Lucia ch.3 35

17. See Dean Jaensch I Electoral Andrew Parkin and Allan Patience The Dunstan Decade at the State Level Cheshire 1981) pp 220-37 and Ken Turner Some South Wales ive Council since in Reid pp 43061

18. W A. LUWUi:>J..'C.Y. The Government of Tasmania of Press St Lucia 1976) p.S

19. Emy Politics of Australian

20. See John McMillan Gareth Evans and Haddon Australia's Constitution Time for Allen and Unwin. Sydney 1983) pp.251-57

21. Sawer Sol Encel. Donald Horne and Elaine Towards a Democratic Constitution pp.59~60, See also Colin Howard. rhe Constitution a in the same volume.