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PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SOCIETY OF |
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Tel +613 9589 1802 |
Tel +61429176725 |
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BEAUMARIS VIC 3193 |
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22nd September 2008 |
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The Four Failed Attempts at Establishing Party List Systems for Legislatures of Australian States and Territories (The requirements in Sections 7 and 24 of the Australian Constitution, and in the Western Australian Constitution, that MPs “shall be directly chosen by the people” have fortunately protected voters for those Parliaments from party list systems.) |
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1915 |
A Parliamentary Committee rejected an ALP proposal to replace Tasmania’s Hare-Clark quota-preferential PR system with a Party List system. See “Quota-preferential PR versus Party List.” The Secretary of
what is now the Electoral
Reform Society in the British Isles travelled to
Tasmania to give persuasive evidence on why a Party List system should
not be substituted for Hare-Clark. |
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1973 |
The Dunstan ALP Government’s reform of South Australia’s Legislative Council introduced a Party List system, but a subsequent Liberal Government replaced it with a quota-preferential PR system in 1985, with Australian Democrats support in the Upper House. |
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1978 |
The Wran ALP Government’s first bill for popular elections for the New South Wales Legislative Council proposed a Party List system, but the Opposition Leader, Sir Eric Willis, said the referendum needed would be opposed unless a quota-preferential PR system was substituted for it, so that change was made, and the referendum was carried. The PRSA(NSW) pressed for quota-preferential PR and not a Party List. |
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1989 |
The Hawke ALP Federal Government
introduced a “Modified d’Hondt” Party List system for the 1989 and 1992
elections for the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory,
but public dissatisfaction led to a plebiscite to choose whether its
replacement should be a Hare-Clark quota-preferential PR system or a system
of single-member districts. The Hare-Clark PR system was chosen by 65% of voters, and was thus introduced. A subsequent referendum in
1995 entrenched it, with 65% of voters favouring that entrenchment. The
PRSA(ACT) campaigned for Hare-Clark in both those successful polls. |