Replace Group Voting Tickets with Optional Preferential Above-The-Line Voting

Dear Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, I believe the Australian electoral system should be improved in the following ways. House of Representatives: Replace single-member electorates with proportional voting The House of Representatives’ single-member electorate system is heavily biased toward larger parties (except in cases where smaller parties are able to concentrate their support in a particular region, an imperative which makes little sense in an increasingly globalized world). The problem is illustrated by the March 2012 Queensland state election, in which the Liberal National Party received slightly less than a majority of the vote yet won 78 of 89 seats. Instead, Australia’s federal Parliament, and all states and territories, should switch to a proportional representation system. Senate: Replace group voting tickets with optional preferential above-the-line voting Under the present Senate electoral system, Australians have the choice of voting either numbering all the candidates (commonly viewed as impractical), or granting a political party the right to distribute their preferences according to a pre-existing group voting ticket. These group voting tickets are determined through non-transparent deals between the parties, and can lead to outcomes which were probably not intended by voters, such as the election of the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir. Instead, group voting tickets should be abolished and replaced with optional preferential above-the- line voting. This would give voters the power to easily determine their own Senate preferences instead of the present choice of endorsing obscure backroom deals or numbering dozens of boxes. It would also remove the incentive to form front parties. Abolish pre-poll voting In the 2013 federal election, 2.7 million people voted before polling day, yet major policies were still being announced in the final days of the campaign period. For this reason, pre-poll voting should be abolished, or at least tightly restricted to those who will be genuinely unable to make it to a polling booth on election day. Regulate party names At the 2013 election, the Liberal Democrats won 9% of the Senate vote in South Australia, almost certainly due to voters confusing them with the Liberal Party. To avoid similar confusion in the future, the Liberal Democrats must be made to change their name and all parties must have distinctive names. Halve nomination fees Candidate nomination fees have recently been doubled, making it more difficult for smaller parties and independents to stand for election. This increase in fees should be reversed. Things that should not be changed Some proposals for electoral reform are not worth pursuing. These include: • Threshold quotas for election. This would lock alternative voices out of the political debate. The problem this is intended to solve would be better addressed by abolishing group voting tickets, as outlined above. • Higher fees. As argued above, if anything fees should be lowered. • Electronic voting. This would make it easier for elections to be rorted by the AEC, unlike the present system in which the count is accountable to scrutineers. I am also skeptical about proposals for voter identification. Although I am disturbed by reports of electoral fraud and error, a voter identification system may risk disenfranchising disadvantaged voters or removing the secrecy of the secret ballot. Yours faithfully, James Wight .

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