Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
ThenumberofmembersintheHouseofAssemblyhaschangedovertime.The
House had at least 30 members from its origins in 1856 until 1998, when it was
reduced from 35 to 25, as shown in Figure 1. This arose as a productivity offset
to justify a controversial 40 per cent pay rise for MPs as a reaction to union and
public pressure at a time of austere state budgets and restrictions on public sector
pay rises. But it especially suited the two major parties, which saw it as a chance to
make it harder for the Greens by lifting the quota required to win a seat from 12.5
per cent (one eighth) to 16.7 per cent (one sixth). A quota under Hare-Clark is the
total number of votes divided by the total number of seats per electorate plus one,
plus one vote. 16
The nearly 200-year-old upper house – the Legislative Council – was reconstituted
as part of the bicameral parliament in 1856. Along with the House of
Assembly, its size was reduced in 1998 – from 19 down to 15 seats, based on
single-member electorates. It is reputedly one of the most powerful upper houses
under the Westminster model of government due to its power to reject money
Bills (budgets) and thus send the lower house to an election. The government has
no power to dissolve the upper house. Further, elections for its single-member
electorates are staggered. Members are elected for six-year terms with elections
alternating between three divisions in one year and two divisions the next year.
This quirky electoral system means that, unlike other state upper houses and the
federal Senate, the Legislative Council never has to face either a full or half-house
general election. Further, it is the only parliamentary chamber in Australia in
which, historically, most of its members have been independents and therefore not
subject to party control. While most of these independents are politically quite
conservative, their autonomous scrutiny of government proposals arguably has
value. In recent years, both the Liberal and Labor parties have experienced electoral
success in the upper house, but independents still outnumber both parties.
Beyond the two-party system
Tasmania’s Hare-Clark electoral system has allowed emerging social movements
to secure parliamentary representation. As a result, significant trends in national
party politics, including the rise of the Greens, and growing support for the Liberal
Partyfromsociallyconservativeworking-classvoters–the‘HowardBattlers’–were
evident in Tasmanian long before other states.
16 Where there is only one seat, the quota is therefore half the number of votes, plus one vote –
which is the same as used throughout Australia in all single-member electorates.
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