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QUOTA Newsletter of the
Proportional Representation Society of Australia QN2013D December 2013 www.prsa.org.au
SA’s
Upper House changes do not assist voters
The
2013 Senate election success of
micro-parties based
on group voting tickets focused
attention on South Australia’s
Legislative Council, which is
elected similarly. With 11 vacancies
at the March 2014 Upper House
election, the media
and the major parties suddenly
became concerned that “preference-harvesting”
agreements between minor groups
could happen in South Australia. There was no such
concern when those agreements
previously favoured the major
parties or the Australian
Democrats.
Each MLC needs a quota of
8.3% of the total votes (first
preferences
plus further preferences). All
elected candidates are on the same footing
with no excessive votes being piled up.
Almost all voters contribute directly to
electing a member, and the number of
wasted votes is low.
Mr
Green argued against introducing exclusionary
thresholds as these are not a
natural fit with quota-preferential PR. He
said voters need to have control of their
preferences: the NSW system under which they
can rank large party columns or mark at least
15 preferences for individual candidates gets
closest to this, although there is debate
about the level of exhausted votes.
While he felt it was too
late to change SA’s voting system, he
suggested other solutions such as
increased hurdles for nomination, and
changing the rules for grouping of
candidates in a bid to limit nominations.
He argued that quality of choice, not
quantity of choice, is required.
South Australia’s
Attorney-General, the Hon John Rau,
spoke of a long-term need for much reform
including removing eight-year terms and
proportional representation.
In the short term, little
time remained to consider optional
preferential voting, changing nomination
requirements, or introducing exclusionary
thresholds. The ALP had no position, but
wanted to participate in any discussion.
SA’s Shadow
Attorney-General, the Hon
Stephen Wade,
felt the 2013 Senate elections showed
the essence of what can happen with
preferential voting, and in
single-member electorates too. In
1997, an Independent, Rory McEwen, won Gordon
with only 22.5% of first preference
votes. The micro-parties and their
issues can become mainstream.
More education on
preferences is essential. Diffusion of
power is important. Rather than
introducing distorted reforms, there is
the need to enhance democracy. A vote for
one party should not be better than a vote
for another party. At
this stage the Liberals would not support
any changes, but would consider them after
the election.
The
Greens Leader, the Hon Mark Parnell,
asked whether there should be
pragmatism or principle. The game of
preferences needs to be played differently,
and he was ready to table a Bill for optional
preferential voting for those wanting to vote
above-the-line.
If voting below-the-line,
electors would still need to number all
candidates. He was prepared to consider making
changes to get rid of party voting tickets,
and to restore power to voters, and would use
NSW software to facilitate the minimal
changes.
Independent Senator
Nick Xenophon
said the system is broken and must
be fixed. Deals behind closed doors -
which did not occur when he was first
elected - must be stopped. He wanted the
NSW system, which meant accepting 11
preferences below-the-line
in South Australia. Representation for the
whole State was a more important
consideration than representing a small
district.
With only weeks of
pre-Christmas Parliamentary sittings
before the March 2014 elections, four
bills to amend South Australia’s Electoral Act 1985
emerged.
Mr Parnell's Electoral (Optional
Preferential Voting) Amendment Bill
about ranking of party or group columns
was introduced on 16 October, and achieved
Labor support. It was lost by one vote
near the end of sittings when former
Valuer-General Hon John Darley, who was
appointed in place of Mr Xenophon when the
latter switched to federal politics,
remained unconvinced that the software
system changes for automated counting
would definitely be made and independently
validated successfully in the limited time
available.
Mr Darley’s Electoral (Preferential
Voting Reform) Amendment Bill,
introducing fully optional preferential
voting below
the line as well as placing
electors in charge of ranking columns to
the degree they wished, was presented on
13 November but not debated or voted on.
The Bill passed in the
Upper House with only two amendments, increasing
to three words the description allowed
of independent groups or candidates, and
increasing to 250 the minimum nominees
for an independent candidate. As
the Palmer United Party was not registered
with the Electoral Commission SA by the
September deadline, a group nomination
would have to comply with the extra
stipulations for participation.
The Electoral
Reform Society of South Australia
said the Bill discriminated in favour of
the major parties. SA’s Upper House ballot
paper for a long time had a degree of
fairness to all candidates in eligibility
conditions and the draw for ballot-paper
places that is now absent.
A draft Electoral
(Legislative Council Voting Reform)
Amendment Bill,
to introduce the Sainte-Laguë vote-counting
system for the Upper House, was tabled
by Mr Rau on 12 November, but not debated.
Now in the public domain, it might be
discussed after the State election. The
Sainte-Laguë
system uses vote-to seat averages,
allocating seats sequentially on the basis
of the highest quotient when party totals
are divided by successive odd numbers.
Fortune in averaging schemes can be fairly
random, especially after a few vacancies
have been filled and the larger parties’
quotients start dropping rather slowly. In
addition, more voters will often find
their votes not electing anyone.
ERSSA argued against
this Bill as it was a departure
from the traditional Australian method
of electing members from multi-member
electorates, an electoral system based
on votes for party rather than votes for
candidates, with no quota
minimising wasted votes, despite SA
being the first place in the
world where the quota was used in a
public election (for
the 1840 election for
the City of Adelaide);
as no
preferences were allowed despite
South Australia’s experience since 1930,
there would also be confusion with
preferential voting for the Lower House.
PRSA
President Bogey Musidlak contacted
MLCs during the final week of sittings
about the need for voter influence to
be placed at the forefront of reform
considerations and the deficiencies of
list
systems and exclusionary
thresholds that were floated
late by Family First. The changes made
do not remove the prospect of a group
being elected through flows of above-the-line
preferences about which most voters
concerned would be unaware, surprised
or alarmed.
A first step in Senate voting reform
Tasmania recently
improved its municipal electoral
system by replacing the staggered
elections for a half - or nearly a half - of
each council’s members each two years with
general elections for the entire council every
four years. PRSA’s Victoria-Tasmania Branch had
made a submission
supporting the Government’s plan for that
reform. The Victoria-Tasmania
Branch made both written and oral input
to the Local Government Electoral
Review Panel that
Victoria’s Minister set up to advise her
on possible improvements in Victoria’s law
on municipal
elections
following low turnout and public
complaints about processes and candidate
behaviour: the focus was on optional
preferential voting and Robson Rotation,
non-circulation of preference orders in
official candidate material, and uniform
odd-numbered ward sizes in councils as
large as 15. Branch officers also met the
Shadow Minister, Hon Richard Wynne, to
discuss views on those matters.
Death
of the Honourable Neil Robson AM Hon Neil Robson
AM - instigator of what has become known as Robson Rotation
- died on 14 December 2013 in Launceston, at 85,
after a recent illness. He had been made an Honorary Life Member
of the PRSA in recognition of his energetic
support for the Hare-Clark
system, both as a Liberal Minister in charge of
the electoral system, and through his ready help
in successfully extending its PR virtues to the
ACT Legislative
Assembly and to Victoria’s Legislative
Council. Neil is survived by his
widow, Mrs Desiree Robson, to whom he was
married for 65 years, and their descendants, who
include great-great-grandchildren.
Mr Patrick
Lesslie, Returning Officer for the recent
elections of PRSA National Officers, has
declared the following elected for the two-year
term beginning on 1 January 2014: National President:
Mr Bogey
Musidlak National Vice-President:
Mr John Pyke National
Secretary:
Dr
Stephen Morey National Treasurer:
Ms Julie
McCarron-Benson Two outgoing officers were
returned unopposed. For President, Mr
Musidlak received 38 votes, and Mr Anthony
van der Craats received 12 votes. For
Secretary, Dr Morey received 39 votes, and
Mr van der Craats 9 votes. The past service
of the candidates nationally appears here.
© 2013
Proportional Representation Society of Australia National President: Bogey Musidlak 14 Strzelecki Cr. NARRABUNDAH 2604 Editor, Quota Notes: Geoffrey Goode 18 Anita St. BEAUMARIS 3193 Tel: (02) 6295 8137, (03) 9589 1802 Mobile 04291 76725 quota@prsa.org.au |
