One vote, one value
In Australia, one vote, one value is a democratic principle, applied in electoral laws governing redistributions of electoral divisions of the House of Representatives. The principle calls for all electoral divisions to have the same number of enrolled voters (not residents or population), within a specified percentage of variance. The electoral laws of the federal House of Representatives, and of the state and territory parliaments, follow the principle, with a few exceptions. The principle does not apply to the Senate because, under the Australian constitution, each state is entitled to the same number of senators, irrespective of the population of the state.
Degree of malapportionment[edit]
Currently, for the House of Representatives, the number of enrolled voters in each division in a state or territory can vary by up to 10% from the average quota for the state or territory, and the number of voters can vary by up to 3.5% from the average projected enrolment three-and-a-half years into the future.[1] The allowable quota variation of the number of electors in each division was reduced from 20% to 10% by the Commonwealth Electoral Act (No. 2) 1973, passed at the joint sitting of Parliament in 1974.[2] The change was instigated by the Whitlam Labor government.
However, for various reasons, such as the constitutional requirement that Tasmania must have at least five lower house members, larger seats like Cowper (New South Wales) comprise almost double the electors of smaller seats like Solomon in the Northern Territory.
Historically, all states (other than Tasmania) have had some form of malapportionment, but electoral reform in recent decades has resulted in electoral legislation and policy frameworks based on the "one vote, one value" principle. However, in the Western Australian and Queensland Legislative Assemblies, seats covering areas greater than 100,000 square kilometres (38,600 sq mi) may have fewer electors than the general tolerance would otherwise allow.[3][4]
'One vote, one value' implementation[edit]
The following chart documents the years that the upper and lower houses of each Australian state parliament replaced malapportionment with the 'one vote, one value' principle.
| State | NSW | Qld | SA | Tas | Vic | WA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper House | 1978[5] | Abolished in 1922[6] | 1973[7] | 1995[8] | 1982[9] | 2021[10] |
| Lower House | 1979[11] | 1991[12] | 1975[13] | 1906[14] | 1982[9] | 2005[15] |
Proposed constitutional amendment[edit]
The Whitlam Labor government proposed to amend the Constitution in a referendum in 1974 to require the use of population to determine the size of electorates rather than alternative methods of distributing seats, such as geographical size. The bill was not passed by the Senate and instead the referendum was put to voters using the deadlock provision in Section 128.[16] The referendum was not carried, obtaining a majority in just one State and achieving 47.20% support, an overall minority of 407,398 votes.[17]
In 1988, the Hawke Labor government submitted a referendum proposal to enshrine the principle in the Australian Constitution.[18] The referendum question came about due to the widespread malapportionment and gerrymandering which was endemic during Joh Bjelke-Petersen's term as the Queensland Premier. The proposal was opposed by both the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia. The referendum proposal was not carried, obtaining a majority in no States and achieving just 37.6% support, an overall minority of 2,335,741.[17]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) s 73 Redistribution of State.
- ^ Commonwealth Electoral Act (No. 2) 1973 (Cth) s 4 Re-distribution.
- ^ Electoral Act 1907 (WA) s 16G Districts, how State to be divided into.
- ^ Electoral Act 1992 (Qld) s 45 - Proposed electoral redistribution must be within numerical limits.
- ^ Constitution and Parliamentary Electorates and Elections (Amendment) Act 1978 (NSW)
- ^ Constitution Act Amendment Act of 1922 (Qld)
- ^ Constitution and Electoral Acts Amendment Act 1973 (SA)
- ^ Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995 (Tas)
- ^ a b Electoral Commission Act 1982 (Vic)
- ^ Constitutional and Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Equality) Act 2021 (WA)
- ^ Constitution (Amendment) Act 1979 (NSW)
- ^ Electoral Districts Act 1991 (Qld). Allows additional nominal voters of 2% per km2 when a district is greater than 100,000 km2. The Electoral Act 1992 (Qld) introduced automatic redistributions.
- ^ Constitution Act Amendment Act (No 5) 1975 (SA)
- ^ An Act To Further Amend The Constitution Act 1906 (Tas). Subsequent amendments continue to be made at each Federal redistribution.
- ^ Electoral Amendment and Repeal Act 2005 (WA). Allows additional nominal voters of 1.5% per km2 when a district is greater than 100,000 km2. This is capped at 20% less than the average enrollment.
- ^ Richardson, Jack (31 October 2000). "Resolving Deadlocks in the Australian Parliament". Research Paper 9 2000-01. Parliamentary Library. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ a b Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Referendum results". Parliamentary Library of Australia.
- ^ Singleton, Gwynneth; Don Aitkin; Brian Jinks; John Warhurst (2012). Australian Political Institutions. Pearson Higher Education AU. p. 271. ISBN 978-1442559493. Retrieved 5 August 2015.