Current Issues:-

REFORM OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

The Labor Government has legislation before the Parliament that will dramatically alter the basis upon which members of the Legislative Council are elected as well as altering the powers of the Legislative Council.

Currently Victoria is divided into 22 Legislative Council provinces with 2 members elected for each province. Each member is elected at alternate elections meaning the term of a councillor is between 6 and 8 years. This is similar to the term of an Australian Senator where one half of the Senate is elected at each election.

Victoria’s Legislative Council provinces comprise of equal numbers of eligible voters (within 10%) to ensure the "one vote, one value" principal. Councillors are elected using the same system as that for electing Legislative Assembly members.

Gippsland Province overlaps the assembly seats of Narracan, Morwell, Gippsland South and Gippsland East. It extends from Warragul in the West to Mallacoota in the East; Omeo in the North to Wilson’s Promontory in the South.

The proposal by the Labor Government is to divide the entire State of Victoria into just 8 Legislative Council provinces, 5 in the metropolitan area and 3 "primarily" in country Victoria. It is proposed that 5 members be elected to represent each province by the method of proportional representation. The term of the elected councillors would be 4 years. The Labor Government’s proposal also takes away the power of the legislative council to block supply.

The effect of this proposed legislation will be to reduce representation for people living in country Victoria. The size of each province will almost triple in size (currently 4 assembly seats will now be 11 assembly seats). This means Gippsland Province will include Frankston and/or Dandenong and extend to the NSW border in far east Gippsland. In fact we will lose the Gippsland name and it will probably be called Eastern Province.

Invariably with the majority of the population of "Eastern Province" living in the Frankston, Cranbourne, Berwick areas, that is where the elected MP’s will base their electorate offices. It is interesting to note that in every other State and Federal Parliament that uses proportional representation to elect MP’s, not one of those

MP’s has an electorate office outside of a capital city. For people living in rural Victoria, the Government’s proposal will mean less access to their Upper House MP’s.

Large provinces will become harder to represent. There is little commonality of community interest between Berwick and Bairnsdale or Dandenong and Yarram.

The huge increase in size of upper house electorates will result in a reduced ability for MP’s to visit all parts of their electorate and understand the range of issues involved. Again this will result in a reduced level of effective representation for country people.

I believe the real motive of the Government in these proposals is to gain political control of the upper house. By abolishing the upper house powers to block supply it is also casting aside the ultimate power of democratic accountability. While this Government continues to espouse claims of being "open and accountable", this proposed legislation does exactly the opposite.

PETER HALL M.L.C.