PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA
 
Tel. (03) 9589 1802  
18 Anita Street
Fax (03) 9589 1680  
BEAUMARIS VIC 3193
Mobile 0409 176725  
www.cs.mu.oz.au/~lee/prsa
ggd@netspace.net.au  
5th October 1999

 

QUESTIONNAIRE ON YOUR VIEWS ON PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION FOR THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF VICTORIA

Name of Candidate: We seek your views on changing the electoral system used to elect members to the Legislative Council of Victoria. We ask you to please reply to the fax number or address above by Monday 11th October 1999 so that we have time to publicize your views (any further comments would be welcome) before polling day. Please circle or tick response.

1. Does the percentage of the long term members elected to the Legislative Council (77% Coalition in 1996, and 59.1% in 1999) fairly reflect the wishes of the people of Victoria at either of those polls?

…. YES …. NO …. UNSURE
 

2. Should members of the Legislative Council be elected by quota-preferential proportional representation, as applies for the Senate, and the NSW, WA and SA Legislative Councils?

…. YES …. NO …. UNSURE
 

3. If members of the Legislative Council are to be elected by proportional representation (which would require multi-member Provinces, preferably with an odd number of MLCs elected for each Province at each poll), how many vacancies should there be in each Province?
    At present each Province has a single vacancy at each normal half-Council poll, i.e. the quota for election of ONE is the maximum possible quota, 50.0% + 1 vote.

    …. FIVE (quota=16.7%) …. SEVEN (quota=12.5%)

    …. NINE (quota=10.0%) …. ELEVEN (quota=8.3%)

    OTHER (please state) …………………………………………………….

    MIXTURE (please outline how the arrangements should work) ……………

    ……………………………………………………………………………

    ……………………………………………………………………………
     

    4. In the ACT and NSW, key aspects of the electoral system cannot be changed by ordinary legislation.

    Do you favour key aspects of the electoral system to be included in the Constitution of Victoria, to be amendable only by a referendum or at least a 2/3 majority of both Houses of Parliament?

    …. YES …. NO …. UNSURE
     

    5. Is it important to ensure there can be no ‘safe seats’, where winning party preselection is enough for a candidate for the Legislative Council to take for granted his or her election to such a seat?

    The Tasmanian and ACT Hare-Clark systems of proportional representation prevent ‘safe seats’ as
    (a) they have no Group Voting Ticket boxes, which bias the poll by encouraging the voter to accept the easy path of endorsing a party’s order of preferences rather than considering the voter’s own order, and
    (b) computer-controlled printing of ballot-papers has the position of candidates’ names rotated within group or party columns, so that each name has an equal incidence of being at certain stated positions.

    …. VERY IMPORTANT

    …. FAIRLY IMPORTANT

    …. A QUESTION FOR EACH PARTY TO SORT OUT

    …. DOES NOT MATTER

    …. UNSURE
     

    6. In the proportional representation systems used for the Tasmanian and ACT Assemblies, and the WA Legislative Council, casual vacancies are quickly and economically filled by direct election by the voters by means of a re-examination by the Electoral Commission of the ballots cast at the poll that last filled the seat. In the Senate, and the NSW and SA Legislative Councils, casual vacancies are effectively filled by nominations from the relevant party organization, without any involvement by voters in deciding which candidate fills the vacancy. Please tick the method for filling casual vacancies you prefer.

    …. Re-examination of ballots to determine replacement member, as in Tasmania, ACT and WA.

    …. Effective nomination of a replacement member by party organization, as in Senate, NSW and SA.
     

    7. Currently, in order to cast a formal vote for Legislative Council elections, voters must fill in all squares without duplication or omission (a single blank square is deemed to be the last preference).

    Please tick the statement below closest to your views on what the test for a formal vote should be.

    …. It is really important that there be a preference for each candidate on each ballot-paper, as required at present.

    …. Voters should be required to mark at least as many preferences as there are vacancies. If they can't do that much, their vote doesn't deserve to be counted.

    …. Voters should be instructed on the ballot-paper to mark a stated minimum number of preferences, at least half the number of vacancies to be filled, to be prescribed in the electoral law. If they do that but make mistakes, their vote should be counted as far as it can.

    …. It should be left up to voters what they do with their ballot-paper. As long as there's a clear and unique first preference marked, a vote should be accepted.
     

    8. Other comments on electoral matters: Please attach any comments on an extra sheet.
     


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