The electoral system in Australia at federal level
The electoral system in Australia is not easy for an outsider or newcomer to understand. There is compulsory voting in Australia.
The parliament exists of the queen (represented by the general governor) and two chambers (senate and House of Representatives). These three elements do Australia a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.
Under the Australian Constitution, the House of Representatives and the Senate generally have equal legislative powers. Bills must be passed by both chambers and approved by the Governor-General before they can take legal effect. Except for the income and tax laws (which have to be introduced in the House of Representatives), a law can be proposed in both chambers.
House of Representatives
The House of Representatives has 150 seats. Each seat represents one electoral district, each comprising around 150,000 people (although this may vary widely).
Geographically, these constituencies can be tiny – the smallest being Wentworth in Sydney (29.6 km²) – or huge, the largest being Durack in Western Australia, with 1,587,758 km² (three times the size of France)
The most outstanding feature of the House of Representatives is that the party or group which has the support of the majority of the representatives forms the government.
Electoral process
Preferential Voting, the voting system known in the United Kingdom as the Alternative Vote and in the USA as Instant Run-off Voting, is widely used for Australian lower house elections. With Fiji and Papua New Guinea (the latter from 2007), Australia is one of only three nations to use this system for national elections.
The preferential voting system for the House of Representatives is designed to elect a single member with an absolute majority for each electorate. Using this system, voters write a number in the box beside every name on the ballot-paper; ‘1’ for their first preference, ‘2’ for their second preference and so on, until all the boxes are numbered.
If a candidate gains an absolute majority (more than half) of first preference votes, they win the seat. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, the candidate with the least number of votes is excluded and their votes are redistributed according to second preferences shown on the excluded candidate’s papers.
The process of redistributing votes according to preferences continues until one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote and is then elected.
Political impact
In this form of majority voting, the voter can express his preferences much more accurately than with the classic majority vote.
A simple example:
| % of voters | 49 % | 26 % | 25 % |
|---|---|---|---|
| First preference | Labor | Green | LNP |
| 2nd preference | LNP | Labor | Green |
| 3rd preference | Green | LNP | Labor |
Here LNP is deleted first. The 25% of LNP are then transferred to the 2nd preference. Now the Greens have more votes and win with 51% (26% plus the 25% of Liberal / National) versus 49% Labor.
But if instead 2% of the Labor voters give the Liberal / National their first preference, the following table results:
| % of voters | 47% | 2% | 26% | 25% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st preference | Labor | LNP | Green | LNP |
| 2nd preference | LNP | Labor | Labor | Green |
| 3rd preference | Green | Green | LNP | Labor |
Here, the greens are first deleted, the LNP now has 27% of the 1st preference. Now the second preference of the Green voters is used and Labor wins the election with 73% to 27%.
The electoral system also makes it possible to cast the first vote for virtually hopeless candidates and still participate in the choice between the most promising candidates with the second or third preference.
The big political parties and candidates distribute how-to-vote cards at polling booths in order to boost their chances of winning. By issuing how-to-vote cards, candidates and political parties aim to maximise their vote and disadvantage their opponents.
The Senate
The Senate has 76 Senators – 12 are elected for each of the 6 states, and 2 each for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
State senators are elected for a six-year term, and those from the territories are elected every three years. Half the Senate is available for re-election every three years. Half-Senate elections are usually held at the same time as House of Representatives elections, though they do not have to be.
Electoral process
Senators are elected by a preferential voting system, known as proportional representation, which is designed to allocate seats to candidates in proportion to votes cast in an election.
A heavy horizontal line runs across the ballot paper. Above that line is a single row of boxes, each above the name (if given) of a party or group, though not for the list of Ungrouped candidates. The position on the ballot paper of each party or group list is determined by lot.
There are two ways to vote for the senators of their state or territory, ‘above the line’ or ‘below the line’.
Above-the-line voting
Above-the-line voting requires voters to number at least six boxes from 1 to 6 for their chosen parties or groups.
By voting above the line, the preferences will be distributed in the order the candidates appear below the line for the party or group one has chosen. The preferences will first be distributed to the candidates in the party or group of first choice, then to candidates in the party or group of second choice and so on, until all preferences have been distributed.
Below-the-line voting
In the section below the black line, one can vote for individual candidates. One has to write number 1 in the box next to the candidate who is the first choice of representative, then number 2 in the box next to the second choice and continue until one has numbered at least 12 boxes below the line. If one wants to continue, one can number as many additional boxes as one choose below the line.
To win a seat, a senator must gain a quota of first and later preferences. For a state senator at a half-Senate election, this equals 14.3% of the total state vote, while a territory senator must win 33.3% of the total territory vote. The counting procedure for a Senate election is more complicated than the system used for the House of Representatives—it sometimes takes several weeks after an election to count all the Senate votes and finalise the result.
Useful links
- Australian Electoral Commission
- Voting in Australia, a 22-page magazine by the AEC which provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian electoral system.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: It’s time to ban how-to-vote cards