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Proportional
Representation Society of Australia |
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Tel +61429176725 |
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The four failed attempts
to establish party list systems
The requirements in Sections 7 and 24
of the Australian Constitution, and in the
Western Australian Constitution
- that MPs “shall
be directly chosen
by the people" - have fortunately
protected voters for those parliaments from party list
systems, but the other five
States still lack that protection. The
Australian Capital Territory has similar
protection, as shown below. |
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1915
TAS |
A Parliamentary
Committee rejected a Labor Party
proposal to replace
Tasmania’s then recently-established Hare-Clark
PR-STV system with a Party List
system. See “PR-STV versus
Party List.” The Secretary of
what is now the Electoral
Reform Society in the United
Kingdom made the long
sea voyage to Tasmania from England -
during the First World War - to give
persuasive evidence on why a Party List
system should not be substituted for
Hare-Clark. |
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1973 |
The
Dunstan Labor Government’s Constitution
and Electoral Acts Amendment Act 1973
introduced, for elections to South
Australia’s Legislative Council,
a Party List
system that provided for
transferable votes between party groups
only, and not individual candidates, but
pleasingly a subsequent Liberal Government
replaced
it with a PR-STV system in 1981, with
Australian Democrats’ support in the
Legislative Council. |
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1978
NSW
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The
Wran Labor Government’s first bill for
popular elections for the New South Wales
Legislative Council proposed a Party List
system, but the Opposition Leader, Sir
Eric Willis, said the referendum needed
would be opposed by the Opposition parties
unless
a
PR-STV system was substituted for it,
so
fortunately that change was made, and the
referendum was carried. The PRSA(NSW) also
pressed for PR-STV, and not a Party List
system, as Hansard
records. |
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1989 ACT |
The
Hawke Labor Federal Government introduced
a “Modified
d’Hondt”
Party List system for the 1989 and
1992 elections for the Legislative
Assembly of the Australian Capital
Territory, but public dissatisfaction led
to a plebiscite to choose whether its
replacement should be a Hare-Clark PR-STV
system or a system of single-member
electoral districts. The Hare-Clark PR system was chosen
by 65% of voters, and was thus
introduced. A subsequent referendum in
1995 entrenched it, with 65% of voters
favouring that entrenchment. The PRSA(ACT) campaigned
for Hare-Clark in both those
successful polls. |