Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
ofthedistrict.Furthermore,suchelectoratesarepermittedtobemorethan20
per cent lower than the average district allowance, compared to all other districts,
which must be within a 10 per cent tolerance.
Since 2005, the state’s electoral boundaries are determined by the three electoral
distribution commissioners: a current or former Supreme Court judge (chair), the
electoral commissioner and the government statistician.
Electoral systems
As is common to bicameral parliaments, WA’s two chambers are elected under
different electoral systems.
At the inception of responsible government, elections for the Assembly were
conducted under first-past-the-post (plurality), combined with single-member
electoral districts. In 1907, plurality was replaced with optional preferential voting
(OPV), making WA the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce this method. In
response to concerns from non-Labor parties about preference losses in threeway
electoral contests, full preferential voting was adopted in 1911. 47 This system
remainsinforcetoday.
Elections for the Council occur under proportional representation using the
single transferrable vote (PR-STV), introduced in 1987. 48 The present system
superseded the 1965 regime, comprised of two-person electorates with staggered
six-year terms, conducted under full preferential voting. 49
Campaign finance and public funding
Campaign finance restrictions were initially introduced in WA in 1904, in the form
of election expenditure caps on candidates. But it was not until 1996 that a more
comprehensive scheme was adopted, with requirements for an annual disclosure of
donations and electoral expenditure by parties and associated entities. The current
disclosure threshold is $2,500. 50
Public funding of elections was introduced in 2006. Under the provisions,
candidates can apply to be reimbursed for electoral expenditure they incurred if
they secured more than 4 per cent of first preference votes (at $1.92713 per vote as
at 1 July 2019).
47 Phillips 2013.
48 The original form of PR-STV used the ‘inclusive Gregory method’ to transfer unused ballot
papers, or a portion thereof, won by elected candidates. This was amended to the
‘weighted-inclusive Gregory method’ in order to address an anomaly where a transferred ballot
paper could potentially increase in value to more than one vote (Miragliotta 2002).
49 Phillips 2013.
50 In comparative terms, WA’s disclosure threshold as at 2019 is higher than most other
comparable jurisdictions except SA ($5,191) and the Commonwealth ($13,800).
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