Two model configurations for a Hare-Clark PR electoral system for the Legislative Council of Victoria present themselves immediately. Model 1 below is based on the Constitution (Proportional Representation) Bill 2000, as last amended by the Legislative Assembly, which the Constitution Commission might well choose to examine, as it has been accepted by at least the Lower House.
Model 2 below is based on retaining all aspects of the present Legislative Council arrangements, except those that would need to be changed in order to provide for a Hare-Clark PR electoral system in place of the present single-vacancy majority-preferential system. The PRSAV-T does not recommend Model 1 for reasons below, nor is it able to recommend Model 2, only because the present number of 44 MLCs does not permit division into small enough provinces. Instead PRSAV-T presents Models 3 and 4. It favours Model 3, but offers Model 4 for consideration if periodic Council elections are not the preferred view of the Commission.
With each of these models it is suggested that the Commission give consideration to the merits of a proposal similar to that raised by Mr Craig Ingram MLA in that not only should Provinces be contiguous with a prescribed number of Districts, but also that as far as is practicable, consistent with the contiguity requirement, the areas of each Province should be as equal as possible. This would in effect create a system of Provinces that each included a sector of the Melbourne metropolitan area, but radiated out from it to the boundaries of the State. That would ensure rural influence and representation in each Province and would expose metropolitan MLCs to involvenment in rural issues in a way that they are presently spared from, even though their votes are just as important on rural and regional issues as their rural and regional counterparts at present. Such a system would share the workload of covering Victorian issues as a whole that at present is handled by very few members of either House.