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QUOTA Newsletter of the Proportional
Representation Society of Australia QN2012A March 2012 www.prsa.org.au ·
Another Lopsided
Queensland Outcome · ACT 20th Anniversary
Radio Interviews · Major NSW Local
Government Changes · Changes Might Eventuate
in Tasmania · List of issues of Quota Notes Another Lopsided Queensland
Outcome Labor’s dominance
of Queensland’s
Parliament in recent
years ended at the
polls on 24 March 2012.
Its first preference
vote fell to 26.6%,
compared with 49.7% for
the Liberal National
Party, 11.5% for Katter’s
Australian Party -
which lost its court challenge
over its abbreviation on
ballot-papers
- and 7.5% for the
Greens. Labor was
reduced to just seven
seats compared with
seventy-eight for the
LNP, and two each for
Katter’s Australian
Party and long-standing
independents. An
independent’s loss to
the LNP in Maryborough,
by only 86 votes, seemed
the only case of luck of
the draw for
ballot-paper places. Informal voting under the
optional preferential rules remained low
at 2.1% statewide. Labor, LNP and the
Greens endorsed a candidate in every
electoral district. The Katter’s
Australian Party stood candidates
in 76 districts and Family First
in 38. In total, 430
candidates nominated. In the 89
electoral districts, voters had
a choice in 5 districts of three
candidates, in 29 districts of
four, in 36 of five, in 15
districts of six, in 3 districts
of seven, and in 1 district of
eight. Whereas Labor’s
ascendancy had long been due to
domination in the Brisbane
metropolitan area (the Liberals
were reduced to a single seat
there in 2001 and only had nine
when briefly part of Coalition
government after the court-ordered
Mundingburra
by-election of 1996), it won just four
seats there this time. After the decision
by Queensland’s former Premier,
Anna Bligh, to quickly leave its
Parliament, a by-election in South
Brisbane was set down for 28
April, the same day as for
periodic municipal elections. The decision
of the Electoral and
Administrative Review
Commission to narrowly
recommend against
proportional
representation for State
elections in 1990 has now
been shown to regularly result
in lopsided parliaments that do
not reflect levels of voter
support either overall, or at a
broad regional level. The LNP gained nearly
half the votes on this occasion, so it
would have won a clear majority under
quota-preferential arrangements in
multi-member electorates, while
sufficient MPs with other pedigrees
would have been elected in all parts of
the State for local political
competition and vigorous scrutiny of
policies and actions to occur throughout
the current term. ACT 20th Anniversary Radio
Interviews To mark the twentieth
anniversary of the resounding
two-thirds vote for Hare-Clark at a 1992
plebiscite, PRSA’s ACT
Branch issued a media
release highlighting
many of the subsequent benefits to
voters: a good choice of candidates in
each electorate, with no-one
guaranteed a safe seat, as Robson Rotation is in
operation; demonstrably fair results
particularly in the seven-member Molonglo
electorate; and the expeditious
filling of casual vacancies via countback. Resultant interviews
on the ABC’s morning program and
commercial talkback radio’s afternoon
show on 15 February 2012 allowed
positive messages about voter
empowerment and demonstrated ability
to individually and collectively make
key choices to be widely shared as
interviewer’s or listeners’ questions
were answered. The Legislative Assembly’s
Standing Committee on Administration and
Procedure has initiated a review of the
Australian
Capital Territory
(Self-Government) Act 1988. Currently,
that federal legislation specifies 17
MLAs and at most five ministers, and
permits changes to the former number
only after passage of a suitable
Assembly motion of request. It also sets a maximum
10% tolerance from the overall
Territory average in elector-to-seat
ratios when a redistribution is
undertaken, which the Territory’s Electoral
Act 1992
takes further with maximum
anticipated election-day
discrepancies limited to 5%. The federal
legislation also specifies the
circumstances in which ACT
legislation may be entrenched
through support at a referendum by
a majority of electors (whether or
not they vote, let alone formally
– in practice, nearly 60% of the
latter). The key Hare-Clark
principles, along with Labor’s
additions of compulsory attendance
and special procedures for
changing Assembly numbers should
that power be transferred, were
entrenched following passage by a
16-1 majority of the Proportional
Representation (Hare-Clark)
Entrenchment Bill 1994 and
support of nearly two-thirds of
the electors voting formally on 18
February 1995, yielding its enactment. Only through a
two-thirds Assembly majority or a
majority of electors voting at
referendum can electoral legislation
containing provisions at variance with
the entrenched principles come into
effect. Major NSW Local Government
Changes Following the March 2011
change of government in Key strategic directions and action plans have been developed under the Destination 2036 initiative. A three-member Local Government Review Panel will investigate and identify options for governance models, structural arrangements and boundary changes before 2014.
Through the Local Government Amendment (Elections) Act 2011, choices over the running of elections were restored to councils rather than having these automatically under the control of the NSW Electoral Commission. Unsurprisingly, just 15 councils decided to take responsibility for the September 2012 poll rather than seek to enter into a service agreement with the Commission. The responsibilities involved and the limited scope for piggybacking onto Commission arrangements or facilities were set out clearly in new guidelines for council-administered elections issued in September 2011 by the Division of Local Government.
After future periodic elections, councils will have twelve months in which to decide whether they wish to use the services of the Electoral Commission for elections, polls and referendums until the end of the four-year term.
The legislation also opened up a five-month window ending on 30 November 2011 in which councils could resolve to abolish ward boundaries entirely (this would mean a change to proportional representation wherever single-councillor or two-councillor wards had exclusively applied, as in Guyra Shire and Cabonne), and - as seven councils did - could resolve to reduce their future numbers without holding a municipal constitutional referendum.
Circumstances in which casual vacancies need not be filled were extended, including to possibly eighteen months before periodic elections, but unfortunately the much more representative approach of requiring automatic countbacks in such instances was not taken up, even as an option.
Separately - after issuing a discussion paper - the O’Farrell Government managed to have the law changed to prohibit dual council and State parliament membership after September’s elections, after gaining Christian Democrat and the Shooters and Fishers Party MLCs’ support on 3 April 2012. It stressed similar prohibitions that apply in all mainland States. The plight of Cr Clover Moore MLA, the Lord Mayor and Member for Sydney, gained the most attention, but twenty-nine MPs currently have dual roles.
Donations
other than directly from individuals were
prohibited under changes to the Election
Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act
1981, which came into effect more
broadly on 9 March 2012, and will apply to
candidates standing in September 2012.
Mandatory authorization of internet
advertising and information to be included on
candidate information sheets were among
changes made through the Local
Government (General) Amendment (Election
Procedures) Regulation 2012. Work has also continued on
establishing a new Model Code of Conduct
with more flexible procedures for handling
complaints, and the development foreshadowed
of a new NSW Intergovernmental Agreement
dealing with core functions of councils and
joint responsibilities of local and State
governments. Changes Might Eventuate in
Tasmania In April 2011, with
funding from the federal Local Government
Reform Fund, the Southern
Tasmanian Councils Authority established an
independent panel of three members, all
living outside Tasmania, to develop options
for local government reform aimed at
achieving financial sustainability in and
around Hobart. After consulting the community and relevant councils, the panel, in its Final Report of October 2011, recommended a single City of Greater Hobart, initially with wards, be formed from current urban areas, and rural arrangements not be altered until their special needs can be reviewed in more detail and changes be made, including mandated sharing of some resources and contracts with urban areas.
The panel recommended that general elections every four years replace the present staggered four-year terms of councillors where half face a poll every two years, and that mayoral candidates not need prior council experience. It was silent about deputy mayor polls, but advocated compulsory voting to encourage more mainstream candidates and for more democratic accountability.
In coming to its primary conclusion about boundaries, the panel put emphasis on carving out a stronger voice for Hobart residents within State structures, and more effective strategic and land-use planning. The panel did not think that emphasis on greater co-operation and shared services under current boundaries offered much hope of significant improvement in efficiency.
While the Report pointed to high levels of public support and councillor co-operation, it remains to be seen whether supportive groups, such as Tasmanians for Reform, can build a climate to effect change in the near future.
The
Mercury in Hobart also reported the Premier,
Lara Giddings, saying
in January 2012 that the House of Assembly
should be enlarged to 35 members when economic
conditions improved, but no legislation could be
expected this year. The Greens agreed, saying
Tasmania had suffered from the major parties’
collusion to reduce numbers in 1998, but the
Liberal Opposition Leader, Will Hodgman, claimed
such priorities were about saving the Premier’s
skin, and showed how out of touch she was with
public opinion when services were being cut.
© 2012 Proportional
Representation Society of Australia National President: Bogey Musidlak 14 Strzelecki Cr. NARRABUNDAH 2604 Editor, Quota Notes: Geoffrey Goode 18 Anita S. BEAUMARIS 3193 Tel: (02) 6295 8137, (03) 9598 1122 Mobile 04291 76725 quota@prsa.org.au
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