At the indicative poll
of all NZ voters, on possible changes to the
The percentages of the vote cast for the four possible electoral system options offered in the second question were:
Supplementary Member 5.5% Single Transferable Vote 17.5% Mixed Member Proportional 70.3% Preferential Voting 6.6% Commentators were initially surprised at the unexpectedly decisive nature of the result, but they soon pointed out the low turnout of voters at what was officially, but erroneously, called a Referendum. They suggested that the turnout, which is expected to not exceed 55% even when absentee and other delayed votes have been counted, would have lacked a very large number of the supporters of the status quo. The supporters of the present single member system were generally aware that the poll was not the final or binding poll - that poll (which is to be a true referendum) is scheduled to coincide with the 1993 General Election polls.
The 1992 poll has shown that 46.5% of those on the electoral roll have voted for a change from the present electoral system, and that the percentages of the roll that have voted for the options above are, in the order they are listed above:
SM 3.0% STV 9.6% MMP 38.7% PV 3.6%
If it is assumed that those that voted this year will collectively not have changed their minds much by next year, the big remaining questions are how many extra people will vote in 1993 and which way will they vote? That depends very much on the way the question will be put. At this stage it appears that it will be put as a choice between the present system and MMP, which was the option that gained an absolute majority of votes in the second question in 1992 although, because of the low turnout, it failed to gain an absolute majority of those entitled to vote. How many of the 61.3% of enrolled voters that failed to support MMP in 1992 will do so in 1993?
The cases for the options that were circulated to all voters at the Government's expense were prepared by the Electoral Referendum Panel, chaired by the Chief Ombudsman,and not by proponents of the particular option involved. A newspaper article putting the case for STV is shown on Page 4. A letter from the PRSA National President championing STV and pointing out the main disadvantages of MMP was published in several NZ daily papers.
The possibility has been mentioned that
between now and the 1993 poll the NZ Government might amend the existing
legislation to add a further question to the poll regarding the possible
creation of an Upper House. In refining the 1993 poll it would be fairer if the
Government were to have two questions on the electoral system rather than the
single question presently envisaged. The first question could be binding as to
whether or not the voter wanted to retain the present electoral system. The
second question could be binding as to whether the new electoral system
(assuming the first question makes a change mandatory) would be MMP or STV. The
need for that fairness derives from the very low turnout for the 1992
indicative poll. At that poll the two most strongly supported options were MMP
and STV, which together gained the support of 48.4% of the enrolled voters.
This would make the 1993 poll a true runoff poll - a common mechanism
in countries (
Supporters of MMP that opposed the suggestion above would have to be very blind to the superiority of STV over the status quo, or very fearful that STV might be preferred to MMP. If NZ parliamentarians, who are said to be predominantly in favour of the present electoral system, were to find that MMP supporters found reasons to oppose the concept of that second run-off question, they might even warm to the idea.
A major, high quality
book on
Mr Terry
Newman, the Parliamentary Librarian, wrote the book, and Mr
Neil Robson, former Tasmanian Electoral Minister and
A feature of the launching, which was a
measure of the pride Tasmanians have in their world-leading electoral system,
was the attendance of the Premier of Tasmania, the Hon. Ray Groom MHA
(Liberal), together with all six surviving former premiers of
Pleasingly the book reproduces material from three separate PRSA publications and makes frequent mention of the late Mr J.F.H. Wright's book, Mirror of the Nation's Mind ($7 post free from PRSA).
The 320-page softcover Hare-Clark book is available by writing to the Tasmanian Parliamentary Library, Parliament House, HOBART TAS 7000, enclosing a cheque or money order for $39.95 (includes postage) payable to Tasmanian Parliamentary Library.
The elections on 19th
September 1992 for
A PR analysis provided by our Queensland Branch involved dividing the State into twelve 7-member districts and one 5-member district. The approximate results at the time of going to press are summarized below:
PERCENTAGES ALP OTHER LIB NAT 1ST. PREFERENCE 49.33 6.50 20.53 23.64VOTES HARE-CLARK 52.8 1.1 21.4 24.7SEATS SINGLE-MEMBER 60.7 0.0 10.1 29.2SEATS
The success of the Nationals reflects the geographical concentration of their supporters. The Liberals continue to suffer from a dispersed vote. Although they received nearly as high a vote as the Nationals they received only a third the number of seats. One would think that the Queensland Liberal Party might join the Tasmanian and ACT Liberal Party Divisions and begin to see some merit in the Hare-Clark electoral system.
The ALP narrowly missed an absolute
majority of first preference votes overall, but Hare-Clark would give it an
adequate Parliamentary majority, as the opposition was so fragmented. As in the
past,
Late last year an important body, the Constitutional Centenary Foundation, was established, with the former Governor-General and High Court Justice, Sir Ninian Stephen, as Chairman of an incorporated association to encourage
"Australians to consider whether some of the legal and government institutions that have evolved over the past 90 years can be improved or made more relevant to the approaching 21st Century."
The first issue of
Constitutional Centenary, the newsletter of the Foundation, stated that the CCF
had commissioned articles on eight different aspects of Parliament, one of
which was Electoral Systems; that later in 1992 it would publish a
comprehensive Issues Paper based on these articles; that it would then
hold a series of seminars around Australia at which the topic can be fully
discussed; and that the Foundation is keen to receive submissions -
both verbal and oral - from interested members of the public on this topic. Applications
for membership of the CCF ($25 per year) should be made to CCF,
The CCF has attracted comment from a
former senator, Mr John Stone, as a spokesman for the
recently established Samuel Griffith Society, which seeks to defend the present
Constitution from unwise, hasty, or unnecessary changes. Mr
Stone (See Leave No Stone Unturned - QN58 June 1990) said that the CCF
appeared to be a stalking horse for republican and other movements
that were seeking radical changes. Although such comments do not promise much
in the way of reform in the electoral area, we might hope that the SGS will
defend the important provisions in Sections 7 and 24 that require that MPs be directly
chosen by the people, if they were to be threatened. Don't be complacent -
Mr Deane Crabb, Secretary of the PRSA's SA Branch, has obtained the SA Hansard of 26th May 1992 in which 3 full pages of small print record the 26 minutes of proceedings, in the art deco interior of SA's Legislative Council Chamber, of a Joint Sitting involving 17 MLCs, 34 MLAs and, among other Parliamentary officials, the Clerk of each House.
That expenditure of time and money and
unnecessary use of the force and dignity of Parliament was required of
Professor Peter Singer,
of
After considering the PRSA's advice, Professor Singer has included in the draft
constitution a clause that requires that votes be counted by the
quota-preferential method of proportional representation, in accordance with
the Proportional Representation Manual of the Proportional Representation
Society of Australia. The meeting to adopt the constitution is to be in the
©1992 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA National President: Geoffrey Goode18 Anita Street National Secretary: John Alexander5 Bray Street Telephone: (03) 589 1802; (02) 960 2193Facsimile: (03) 589 1802 Printed by PINK PANTHER INSTANT PRINTING12 Pirie Street ADELAIDE THE CASE FOR
QUOTA-PREFERENTIAL PR (SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE) The
Press,