|
QUOTA
Newsletter
of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia Number 72 December 1993 www.prsa.org.au
·
Groom
Government Attempts to Weaken Hare-Clark ·
ACT
Government Breaks its Undertakings on Hare-Clark ·
NZ to
Abandon its Electoral System of Single-Member Districts Only ·
PRSA
Invited to Constitutional Centenary Foundation Forum ·
National
Office-Bearers for 1994-95 ·
South
Australia’s Supposed “Landslide” ·
List of issues of Quota
Notes Groom
Government Attempts to Weaken Hare-Clark A
sudden attempt by Tasmania's Liberal Party Government, without significant
prior publicity or public inquiry, to adversely alter Tasmania's Constitution Act 1934
by reverting to the pre-1958 arrangement of having 6 members per Assembly
electoral district instead of the 7 that have been established for the last
25 years, has suffered a temporary setback thanks to public vigilance,
opposition by the ALP and the Green Independents and, most importantly, the
decidedly non-ALP Upper House. The Legislative Assembly, whose
majority forms the Government, and which is elected by the Hare-Clark form of
proportional representation, passed a Government Bill that would return
Tasmania to the unfortunate condition where each electoral district would
elect an even number of MHAs rather than an odd number. With only 6 seats, a
majority of votes of less than 57% in a district can elect only 3 MHAs,
leaving the other 3 able to be elected by a minority as low as 43%. Past
Tasmanian experience found this discrepancy to be a far less satisfactory use
of Hare-Clark than the use with 7 members, where a group of candidates that
receives an absolute majority of votes can be sure of gaining a majority of
seats in that district. A major public meeting called to
protest against the manoeuvre filled the Hobart Town Hall. Speakers included Malcolm Mackerras, from the ACT. A message of
opposition to the change, from the PRSA National President, was placed on the
seats in the Hall and read out to the meeting by the Green Independent MHA
for The Legislative Council resolved that
the Bill should be subjected to an Inquiry in 1994 before it would consider
it again. Articles in The Mercury by
Dr George Howatt, who wrote the original report to both Houses of
Parliament
recommending the use of 7 MHAs per district, and discussions between him and
most of the 19 MLCs greatly
assisted the Upper House in its wise decision. ACT
Government Breaks Its Undertakings on Hare-Clark The minority Follett ALP
Government tabled its Electoral
(Amendment) Bill 1993 in the ACT's unicameral legislature on 16th December
in response to the 1992 ACT plebiscite where 65% of ACT voters chose a pure
Hare-Clark electoral system. Hare-Clark was specified in detail in the
official plebiscite material as the alternative option to the single-member
electorates openly favoured for the ACT by both the Federal and ACT
Governments. The
news of the Follett Government's Bill reversing its public pledge headed the
front page of The Canberra Times.
The main but not the only breach of trust was the inclusion of post-1984
Senate-style Group Voting Tickets and the associated above-the-line boxes.
Bogey Musidlak was reported saying, for the PRSA, that people would be
ticking an order above the line (the party's) that bore no resemblance to the
order of names below the line. He said, "It looks like the first
attempt in Australian electoral history to have the ballot-paper wilfully
misleading the voters. If it were a commercial document, the Trade Practices
Commission would be on to them in a flash." The independent expert, Malcolm
Mackerras, said, "Hare-Clark is
inconsistent with above-the-line and I would regard it a flouting of the
wishes of the electorate." The ACT Government is breaching
trust with the voters at the plebiscite and with all future voters using a
Robson Rotation ballot-paper. Robson Rotation was a feature specified at the
plebiscite. A court challenge might be needed. Senate ballot-papers have a
fixed, stage-managed order of the names of the candidates in each Group, and
voters can and normally do expect that to be the same as the order of the
Group's candidates in the corresponding Group Voting Ticket. By the very
nature and purpose of Robson Rotation there would be no such implicit nexus
in the devious ballot-paper envisaged by the ACT Bill. The
Bill will be debated in February 1994, and the voting intentions, so far
unrevealed, of Mr Dennis Stevenson MHA will be critical to the outcome. NZ to Abandon its Electoral
System of Single-Member Districts Only
The crudity of New Zealand's
entirely single-member first-past-the-post electoral system was bad
enough for 53.8% of NZ referendum voters in November to abandon it. Once again, as
in the ACT plebiscite, a single-member electorate system has failed to gain
popular support. The
replacement is MMP, a sorry contrivance, with a thin veneer of plausibility.
Half the MPs will still be from single-member electorates - the rest will not
be directly elected by the people. Sadly The
concurrent NZ General Election mocked the claims made by the single-member
electorate supporters. It gave no comfortable substantial majority to one
party, and 55% of the voters elected nobody - they gave their
non-transferable votes to unsuccessful candidates. PRSA Invited to
Constitutional Centenary Foundation Forum
The Constitutional Centenary
Foundation Inc. On
12th November 1993 a 2? hour Forum was held in Victoria's Legislative Council
Chamber, which was Australia's Senate Chamber from 1901 to 1927, on the
desirability of a popularly and directly elected Constitutional Convention
being established by legislation to draft Constitutional Alteration Bills for
consideration by Federal Parliament, and decision by the electors if
Parliament passed such bills. Such a method is being considered partly
because it was the remarkably successful method by which the Constitution was
drafted and approved in the first place. The
Foundation invited the National President, Mr Geoffrey Goode, to represent
the PRSA. Proceedings began with addresses by three speakers, Professor
Stuart McIntyre, Professor of History at the Dr Costar considered
that an entirely directly-elected Convention, where each State was one
electorate returning the same number of delegates, would be feasible, but
that it would need to use a quota-preferential form of counting rather than
the first-past-the-post block vote that was used
in the 1890s. He further commented that he thought that it would be
undesirable to use Senate-style Group Voting Tickets, and that some degree of
optional marking of preferences might be favoured. He did not go into further
detail, such as the use of Robson Rotation, or the provisions for
filling casual vacancies. Dr Costar
remarked that some people might consider that a directly-elected Convention
would not be representative enough, and that consideration may be
given to creating positions for various special groups, to ensure that they
were not unrepresented. Unfortunately in the subsequent discussion several
speakers supported the notion that a partly pre-ordained representation was
superior to one that was entirely directly and popularly elected. The PRSA President made the observation, as
a comment on the encouraging historical background view that had been put by
Professor McIntyre that, of the six Australian colonies that each had ten
representatives at the 1890s Constitutional Convention, it was only in the
four most advanced colonies that citizens voted directly to decide their
representation on the Convention. In the remaining then relatively backward colonies
of Mr Goode also mentioned to the Forum that
when British ministers in London proposed altering somewhat the draft
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill 1900, which was presented to them
by an Australian delegation there, and which was eventually endorsed by
referendum in all six colonies, the delegates had a powerful argument for
their insistence on there being no such alterations. They argued that not
only had each colony accepted the draft Constitution by referendum, but a
majority of the colonies (which contained over 80% of those eligible to vote
at the referendum) had selected their delegates to the Convention that
produced the draft Constitution by direct election from the electorate at
large. What business was it of the The PRSA intends to make a detailed submission
to the Foundation on electoral matters relevant to a directly-elected
Convention, and on electoral provisions that should be included in the
Commonwealth Constitution. ♫ ♪ ♫ "O Canada!" ♫ ♪ ♫
These
opening words of the Canadian National Anthem seemed appropriate on hearing
the result of November's elections to
Real Choices/New Voices
This is the title of a
significant new book published this month in the "Why does Professor Amy
blames the US plurality voting system for contributing to some of the
nation's most serious political problems, including the two party oligopoly,
issue-less campaigns, low voter turnout, and lack of minority representation.
Real Choices/New Voices argues that proportional representation would create
more representative legislatures, minimize wasted votes, eliminate
gerrymandering, encourage issue-oriented campaigns, enhance representation of
women and minorities, and ultimately increase voter turnout. Why does the
US cling to a plurality voting system - in which a single legislator, the one
that wins the most votes, is elected in each district? Americans assume that
their electoral process is the most democratic without really exploring other
options. They are content to support the notion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. In fact their electoral
process is broken and it desperately needs to be fixed. Most Western
democracies have proportional representation governments, in which officials
are elected in large, multi-member districts according to the proportion of
the vote won by their parties. It is time the American people learned that a
true democratic government must benefit everyone, not just a select
few." Professor Amy
contacted the PRSA for information while he was writing his book, and he
kindly acknowledges the PRSA and its help at the front of the book. The price of
the 224-page book is US$35, and it is well worth it. It is to be hoped that
the book will help to fuel the feebly flickering flame of proportional
representation in the USA, as the apparently complacent retention of
single-member electoral systems there continues to give a poor example to the
rest of the English-speaking countries, which are the main users of such
systems. National Office-bearers for
1994-95
The Returning Officer for the recent
elections of PRSA National Office-bearers, Mr Tom Round, has declared the
candidates below elected unopposed to the following positions within the
Society from 1st January 1994 to 31st December 1995: National President: Mr Bogey Musidlak National Vice-President: Mr Geoffrey Goode National Secretary: Mr John Alexander National Treasurer: Mr Leonard Higgs Mr
Goode, who succeeded the late Mr Jack Wright as National President in 1986,
is pleased to see Bogey Musidlak elected, and is looking forward as the new
Vice-President to working with him. Mr David Higbed,
the retiring Vice-President, did not stand again. Bogey was the Research Officer for the
NSW Branch in the early 1980s, and has been National Research Officer since
1989. He is also the Convenor of the ACT Branch. Some of the PRSA's success stories
that have given him heart have been the detection, with Jack Wright, of flaws
in the 1983 Bill to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act (there was confusion
between exhaustion and non-transferability of votes, the election of the
correct number of senators would not have been guaranteed in practice),
analyses of NSW municipal PR elections that were helpful in repelling recent
NSW Government attempts to dispense with PR there, and undoubtedly the successful
ACT Hare-Clark plebiscite during 1991-2. Bogey believes strongly that we must
collect more information so we can articulate our position cogently and early
in public debate and also identify clubs, societies and other organizations
that might institute fairer election rules. As there have been some excesses
under current procedures, progress might be made with trade union and company
board election rules. South Australia's Supposed
"Landslide"
At the South Australian election
on 11th December the Liberals appeared to have won just over 80% of the seats
in the House of Assembly, although they won only 53% of the first preference
vote. The single-member electorate system robbed them of probable office in
1989. Their margin in first preference votes over the ALP was 3.1 percentage
points then (QN56). This
time it gave them an exaggerated percentage of the seats, which will lead to
a restive backbench and an enfeebled Opposition. The table
below shows how much fairer a Hare-Clark result
would be in a system of seven 7-member electoral districts. The Opposition
would have one or more members in each electoral district in the State and
not just the 9 out of 47 now likely, yet the Liberals would still have an
absolute majority of seats in the Assembly.
Initiative for South Africa
The
Vice-President of the PRSA's Victorian Branch, Mr Fred Ingamells,
proposed sending the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend
Desmond Tutu, a copy of the book Representation
of All Opinions Mr Ingamells approached
the author of the book, Mr Terry Newman, the Chief Librarian of the Tasmanian
Parliamentary Library, to buy a copy, but Mr Newman insisted on posting him a
free copy when he heard that it was to be sent to the Archbishop. Mr Ingamells paid express
airmail postage on the book so Archbishop Tutu could examine it before his
recent visit to PRSA members must constantly take such initiatives
when opportunities arise to promote Hare-Clark. Obituaries
On
16th October 1993 a longstanding PRSA member, and champion in Ron lived to see increasing use of
Hare-Clark in Tasmanian councils - some of that was due to legislation
establishing new amalgamated councils specifically requiring Hare-Clark
elections, but there is no doubt he would have been appalled by, and would
have actively campaigned against, the Government's recent attempt to revert
to 6-member districts for Assembly elections. Mr Excell,
a former Hobart City Alderman, is survived by his wife Mary and their
children. Mr Edward Wheeler, the newly-elected
Secretary of the ACT Branch of the PRSA, whose professional editing talents
were proving of great value to the Branch, also died recently, of a heart
attack in his sleep. His passing similarly represents a significant loss to
the Society. His colleagues all attended the memorial service held for him. © 1993 Proportional Representation Society of National
President: Bogey Musidlak, 14 Strzelecki Cr, NARRABUNDAH 2604 Tel:
(02) 6295 8137 info@prsa.org.au Printed
by Pink Panther Instant Printing, |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
