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QUOTA
Newsletter of
the Proportional Representation Society of QN77
March
1995
www.prsa.org.au · Almost 2/3 Vote to
Entrench the ACT's Hare-Clark PR ·
Morling Report Wants
Tasmania's Hare-Clark Defended and Extended ·
A.C.T. Poll Marks a
Doubling of Australia's Hare-Clark Utilization
·
A.C.T. Referendum
(Machinery Provisions) Act 1994 DECLARATION OF
RESULT OF REFERENDUM ·
List of issues of Quota Notes Almost 2/3 Vote to
Entrench the ACT's Hare-Clark PR
Shortly before
11 p.m. on referendum night, on the 18th
February 1995, electors' approval of the That
last hurdle, of winning the votes of an
absolute majority of the electors on the roll,
had easily been jumped. Henceforth the votes
of a 2/3 majority of the Assembly, or the
approval of a majority of electors on the
electoral roll at a referendum, will be
required before any legislation can depart
from the following key features:
The PRSA's ACT Branch
had 100,000 leaflets printed urging a "YES"
vote, and giving reasons for it. The
leaflet accompanies this issue of Quota Notes. The
broadly-based Hare-Clark
Campaign Committee ran campaign events in
1992. This time the Society's ACT Branch had to
secure media coverage itself. Useful "YES"
publicity was obtained by endorsements over a
very wide spectrum, which included Ken Fry
(former Labor MHR for Fraser in the ACT), Ted
Mack MHR (Independent, North Sydney), Dr Bob
Brown (former Tasmanian Greens MHA and soon to
be a Tasmanian Senate candidate), and the Earl Kitchener of
Khartoum (recently
a councillor of the Electoral Reform
Society of Great
Britain and Ireland, and a colleague of Dr David Hill, who is
the ERSGB&I's expert in computer counting of
PR elections, and a descendant of Thomas and Rowland
Hill, of PR
fame.) Lord Kitchener had earlier visited Two of the ACT Branch's eye-catching
signs below appeared in prominent places outside
most polling booths, but no separate leaflets
were produced for handing out on polling day.
The 150 signs were each 900 by 600 mm high, and
were conspicuous in black print on firm yellow
plastic. Without donations from around
Rallies at
Belconnen and Fadden with speakers from
supporting parties helped bring the "YES"
message to a much wider audience through the
media. The speakers did not include any from
the Australian Labor Party. Although the
Territory's ALP Government had voted for the
amended entrenchment Bill, its candidates did
not lend any active support, and ALP
how-to-vote cards for the concurrent election
did not, unlike those for other candidates,
make any mention of the referendum. The PRSA's
ACT Branch also joined forces with the
Movement for Direct Democracy and the Council
for Civil Liberties to sponsor a public forum
on the voters' role in influencing ACT
decision-making. The 90% turnout and 4%
informal rate meant that the target for
success was about 58% of formal votes. Overall
support was in fact only about 0.5 percentage
points lower than the vote for Hare-Clark over
single-member districts in the advisory referendum
of 1992. At most booths the support for
entrenchment was within 3% of the support
Hare-Clark achieved in 1992. In the
Assembly electoral districts the support was:
Molonglo (central Every booth
had a "YES" majority. In 1992 only the
smallest booth lacked a majority for
Hare-Clark. There were increases of more than
3 percentage points upon 1992 support for
Hare-Clark at 12 booths (one in every six).
Increases at the larger booths reached 11
points at Narrabundah and 8-10 points at the
two Ainslie booths. Crispin Hull was
the Editor of The Canberra Times
when it gave Hare-Clark strong editorial support
in 1992, but this time, under his successor,
Michelle Grattan, who was replaced in March
1995, it had no firm position on entrenchment.
The Australian Electoral Commission sent each elector a
booklet that
contained the "YES" case, which was attributed
to The MLAs that voted in favour of the
Entrenchment Bill, and the "NO" case,
which was attributed to The MLA that voted
against the Entrenchment Bill. A major
task for Hare-Clark campaigners was countering
the "NO" case, which they saw as a misleading,
misinformed diatribe. The "NO" case was prepared
by the sole MLA that voted against the Bill in
the Assembly, Mr Dennis Stevenson, the Abolish
Self-Government Coalition MLA. He did not seek
re-election. No candidates stood for that
Coalition. It still exists, but it may feel
unable to gain even 12.5%. As a majority of the
16 MLAs in favour of entrenchment had to agree
on the wording of the "YES" case, the failed
attempt to prescribe party boxes above the
line could not be mentioned, and the ALP
even vetoed mention of voter empowerment through
Robson Rotation. As wording disputes were still
being resolved on the deadline day, the "YES"
case authors paid little attention to layout and
lively language, compared to Mr Stevenson's
efforts. Mr Stevenson wrongly claimed that
entrenchment would preclude a single ACT-wide
electoral district, and he sought to portray
entrenchment as a plot against minor parties and
independents. The numbers of the latter
increased after the election, and thus belatedly
disproved that assertion. His more credible
argument was that voters should not take a
12-point Hare-Clark entrenchment package on
trust before Hare-Clark had been tried in the
ACT, and that view might have reduced the "YES"
vote. He did not mention that a failure to
entrench promptly might allow tampering with
Hare-Clark to begin quickly. Miss Enid
Lakeman O.B.E.
An
indefatigable campaigner for electoral
reform and the involvement of women in
political life, Miss Enid Lakeman
O.B.E., the
Director of the Electoral Reform Society of
Great Britain and Born in 1903, she had a great
grandfather that campaigned for Lord John
Russell's 1832 Reform Bill, and a grandmother that was an early
member of the PRSGB&I. A In 1959 and in 1968
she campaigned in Eire in support of the
established provision in the Irish
Constitution that requires elections by the
Single Transferable Vote form of PR in
electoral districts returning at least three
MPs. In both those years, Irish Governments
initiated the necessary referendum to have
that provision replaced by a requirement for
the Her numerous
pamphlets, articles and major publications
included Voting in Democracies (4
editions: 1955-74), and Power to Elect (1982).
In 1993 the American Association of Political
Science gave her their George Hallett Award.
The citation said her book How
Democracies Vote had a major impact in
the conceptual and empirical analyses of
electoral arrangements. Morling Report Wants
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Brindabella
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Ginninderra
|
Molonglo
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Total
A.C.T. |
|
|
Votes
(%) |
Liberal
|
37.1 |
40.7 |
42.8 |
40.5 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
40.0 |
40.0 |
42.8 |
41.2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
ALP |
31.6 |
32.7 |
30.9 |
31.6 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
40.0 |
40.0 |
28.6 |
35.3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
Green
|
7.9 |
8.7 |
10.1 |
9.1 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
0.0 |
20.0 |
14.3 |
11.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
M.I. |
3.8 |
8.0 |
8.8 |
7.0 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
0.0 |
0.0 |
14.3 |
5.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
AD |
3.8 |
5.0 |
3.2 |
3.9 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
Others
|
15.8 |
4.8 |
4.2 |
7.9 |
|
MLAs
(%) |
20.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
5.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Votes
(%) |
Inf. |
6.2 |
6.7 |
5.9 |
6.2 |
|
Quota
|
8317 |
7990 |
8430 |
|
|
|
Candidates
|
23 |
20 |
31 |
74 |
|
|
Seats
|
5 |
5 |
7 |
17 |
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Indonesia
Last month,
The Australian newspaper (23/2, Page 13)
reported that the President of Indonesia has
called for a review of
Golkar is the only party allowed to
campaign between elections.
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PARTY
|
VOTE
(%) |
POLL
SEATS (%) |
TOTAL
SEATS (%) |
|
Golkar
|
68 |
70.5 |
56.4 |
|
United
Development |
17 |
15.5 |
12.4 |
|
Democratic
Party |
15 |
14.0 |
11.2 |
|
Armed
Forces |
0 |
0.0 |
20.0 |
With Golkar's privileges and high vote,
it is difficult to see why relative majority
voting would be thought to be needed. Golkar has
an absolute majority of seats even after
allowing for the armed forces' seats. A relative
majority system could give Golkar all the
elected seats.
Referendum (Machinery
Provisions) Act 1994
DECLARATION
OF RESULT OF REFERENDUM
On 18 February
1995 the Proportional Representation
(Hare-Clark) Entrenchment Bill 1994 (the
entrenching law) was submitted to a referendum
of the electors of the Territory in accordance
with the provisions of the Referendum
(Machinery Provisions) Act 1994.
In accordance with paragraph 14(4)(b)
of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act
1994 I hereby set out the number of votes
counted in the referendum and declare the
result of the referendum.
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Number
of votes approving of the
entrenching law: |
109,666
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|
Number
of votes opposed to the entrenching
law: |
59,017
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Number
of informal ballot papers: |
7,190
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Number
of electors on the electoral roll for
the referendum: |
195,389
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Number
of electors whose votes were admitted
to the scrutiny but whose names were
omitted from the electoral roll by
reason of official error: |
1,570
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Total
number of electors entitled to vote at
the referendum: |
196,959
|
|
|
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Proportion
of electors approving the entrenching
law: |
55.68%
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According to the results of the referendum
set out above, a majority of the electors entitled
to vote at the referendum approved the entrenching
law.
© 1995 Proportional
Representation Society of
National President: Bogey Musidlak 14 Strzelecki Cr. NARRABUNDAH 2604
National Secretary: Robert Forster 38 French Street HACKETT ACT 2602
Tel: (02) 6295 8137 info@prsa.org.au
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