Electoral Reform Society of South Australia proposals February 2010

1. The quota-preferential method of proportional representation should be used for electing all houses of parliament in Australia.

   Of all the methods of election the method of election that gives maximum effective representation is the quota-preferential method of proportional representation. Unlike single member systems, there are no “safe seats”. Every seat is marginal and parties are generally more responsive to all voters.

   The Senate/Legislative Council are elected by the quota-preferential method of proportional representation, from statewide electorates, and differ from the Houses of Representatives/Assembly in that respect.

   An analysis of the 2006 State Election results for the House of Assembly shows only 56.3% of South Australian voters found that their votes (or preferences) elected someone to the Lower House. Even though the ALP won more than its fair share of seats (60% of the seats for 45% of the vote), over a quarter of Labor voters found that their votes were wasted. For the Liberal Party the situation was even worse, with 51% of their supporters finding their votes wasted. Over 410,000 persons who voted did not elect anyone to the House of Assembly. In contrast, 92% of these voters elected someone to the Legislative Council.

2. There should be multi-member regional electorates with between five and nine members from each electorate in the Houses of Representatives/Assembly.
3. Filling casual vacancies should occur by countback (as with the Hare-Clark system in Tasmania) to ensure fairness and prevent party interference.
4. Positions of candidates on ballot papers should be rotated at random (Robson rotation) to prevent automatic or donkey voting.
5. Voting should be optional preferential

   If a voter has a preference for only one or several candidates, then that voter should be allowed to vote accordingly, and not forced to give preferences to all candidates.

6. Above the line voting for the Senate/Legislative Council should be abolished in favour of optional preferential voting.

   Voting above the line makes it difficult for voters to find out how preferences are given. While above the line voting exists, it is necessary to ensure that voters are aware of how preferences will be distributed.

7. Redistributions of electoral boundaries should only occur when the number of electors is above or below a designated margin by a significant amount and this occurs in a number of the multi-member electorates.
8. If single-member electorates are maintained for the Houses of Representatives/Assembly, discrepancies in the size of electorates must be addressed.

   Currently there can be a wide disparity in the size of electorates for the House of Representatives. At the last Federal election, the largest electorate was Canberra (ACT) with 122,401 voters and the smallest was Solomon (NT) with 57,560 voters.

   The current Constitutional requirements should be examined. If Tasmania is to have a minimum number of seats, or there are to be a certain number of seats for each territory, then these “benchmarks” need to set the size of all electorates and the number of members of the House of Representatives adjusted accordingly.

9. There should be changes so that to fill any Senate/Legislative Council vacancies, there is a recount of the votes that elected the retiring member.

   If the voters’ wishes - as expressed at the initial election for the vacating member - are to be reflected, the quota of votes that elected the vacating member should be recounted to ascertain whom the voters next preferred.

   The countback method is important in maintaining the connection with voters.

   Currently there is no provision for filling a vacancy of an Independent or of a person who represented a party that now no longer exists.

10. All permanent residents in Australia and who pay taxes should be eligible to enrol to vote.

    Why should non-citizens who are permanent residents and pay taxes not allowed the opportunity to vote on how their taxes should be spent?

11. It is unrealistic to expect voters to update their enrolment details within 30 days of moving to a new address.

    If children leave home, this often means moving from place to place until they settle, usually by buying their own home. During this time there may be merit in allowing them to maintain their enrolment at the parental address.

12. Electoral Education Centres should be maintained in each state and territory.
13. The Australian Electoral Commission/Electoral Commission SA should be the only organisation allowed to distribute and receive applications for postal votes.

    There is a need for clarification on whether voters need to make a postal vote. The major parties tend to distribute material which includes applications for postal votes. Many are confused by these applications and also concerned at the process when such applications have to be returned through a political party.

    There is merit in considering changing completely to postal voting (as now used for local government elections in South Australia).

14. There is a need to extend electronic voting and allow absentee voting at all polling booths.
15. At election time, the Australian Electoral Commission/Electoral Commission SA should distribute material about the election to all electors. This package is to include:
    • details about the election and where to vote
    • details about the candidates, including contact details, for both Houses of Parliament
    • details about how-to-vote cards/tickets