Wide electoral reform planned in Australia

Press, 23 September 1983, Page 16

Wide electoral reform planned in Australia

NZPA-AAP Canberra The Australian Federal Government hopes to push wide-ranging electoral reforms, including an increase in the number of members of Parliament and Senators and the public funding of political parties, through Parliament in the next three months.

The Special Minister of State, Kim Beazley, describes the changes as the “most dramatic set of reforms of our electoral system since virtually 1918.” He is planning to make a submission to the Cabinet within the next two or three weeks and hopes to have the necessary legislation passed through Parliament by Christmas.

The reforms are among 132 recommendations contained in the 300-page report of the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform which was tabled in the House of Representatives recently by the committee chairman, Dr Dick

Alttough there were dissenting reports on a number of the recommendations, the Government beUera there are sufficient crossA

party alignments to ensure the major thrust of the legislation will be accepted in the Senate. The most controversial of the committee’s recommendations is likely to be the move to increase the size of Parliament This would cost taxpayers an extra $5 million a year. The committee suggests an increase in the number of Senators in each State from 10 to 12, taking the total to 72, and increasing the number of members in the House of Representatives by about 24.

The committee has also recommended the introduction of public funding of political parties for electioneering. Registered parties would be allocated funds based on the number of votes they received in the previous election and on the primary postage rate. Public funding and the sweeping redistribution of electors and seats flowing from the report would be administered by a new Australian Electoral Commission, to be established as an independent statutory authority replacing the Electoral Office.

The committee recommended that no limits should be imposed on election campaign expenditure, but said that all donations of more than $2OO to a candidate or in excess of $lOOO to a party should be disclosed and the donor identified.

The Commission would be vested with the power to investigate the origins of the funds, and fines up to $lOOO for an individual and $lO,OOO for a party are recommended, to ensure that the responsibility to disclose is properly observed. The Committee recommended continuation of the present Statewide proportional representation for the Senate and single-member constituencies returning representatives by a preferential voting system for the House of Representatives.

However, it proposed certain modifications to reduce the level of informal votes, including an optional “list” system for the Senate and less strict provisions for filling in House of Representatives ballot papers. The paper also recommended the closing of polling booths at 6 p.m. rather than at 8 p.m.