PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA - NSW BRANCH
QUOTA NOTES NO 19
SEPTEMBER 1980
A second workshop in conjunction with. the Australian Democrats was held on Sunday 17 August at El Rancho Hotel-Motel, North Ryde. The half-day program was designed to give those taking part an understanding of the principles of proportional representation and some experience in actual use of the quota preferential method. It included talks by several members of the Society and a count of an election typical of committee elections in clubs, societies, and party branches. It has been suggested that a similar workshop for members of the Society might be useful. If you would be interested, write to the Secretary or telephone 498 5559. Learning by doing can be fun.
On Thursday 24 July, the Queensland Branch of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia was officially established. An Interim Committee, with Mr John Campbell as Acting Secretary is busy getting the Branch on to a regular operating basis. Watch for further bulletins.
There was some discussion at the Adelaide 50th anniversary meeting (see over) on the prospects for replacement of the party-list method of election of the South Australian Legislative Council by a genuine quota-preferential method. Since then it has been reported that the Government intends to introduce a Bill in the present session to provide for a method similar to the one used for the New South Wales Legislative Council. While not ideal, this would be a great improvement
on the party-list method.
The guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Victorian Branch of the Proportional Representation Society in July was Mark Birrell, President of the Young Liberals in Victoria. He spoke of efforts by the Young Liberals directed towards reform of the Victorian Legislative Council, a major point in their proposals being the introduction of proportional representation. This would be a big advance, as the Council is at present elected from two-member Provinces with overlapping terms, so that what they have is really a single-member district system.
The Local Government Association at its Conference in Albury in August considered a proposal for the election of its Executive by the quota-preferential method. Unfortunately, the motion to amend the Constitution to make this possible was lost by a small margin. The decision leaves the Association electing its Executive by the horse-and-buggy era block-vote method.
The quota-preferential method will be used in most districts in the local government elections in September. Where wards or ridings return only one or two members, the majority-preferential method is still used. Local government in New South Wales would be improved if all Aldermen and Councillors were elected by the quota-preferential method, with at least five vacancies in each electoral area. The most accurate representation would be achieved if wards and ridings were abolished and municipalities and shires generally elected their councils, as some already do, from their whole areas as single electorates.
The Tasmanian Parliamentary Paper 'Democratic representation under the Hare Clark system', by Dr George Howatt, first published in 1958, has been reprinted recently , It is available from the Government Publications Centre, 134 Macquarie Street, Hobart, Tasmania 7000. The price is $1.00.
