PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 December 1928, Page 9

PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

AUSTRALIA’S EXPEDIENCE. ADVOCATES OF A CHANGE. SYDNEY, Dec. 20 It Call be truly said that the preferential system ot voting has heeii fully tested in Australia, and just as truly can it be said that it does not give a. fair representation. Critics of the preferential system, as applied to the Senate election, are objecting that, oh the aggregate votes cast throughout the Commonwealth,, Labour should have a much greater representation. It is shown that the 12 Government members returned at the last election received a vote of 1,426,090, whereas the 1,424,000 votes polled by Laboursecured the election of only seven candidates. The margin of votes received by the Government was small enough to suggest that the numbers elected should have been, equal. By accident Labour secured one of the three seats in Victoria-. The Government candidates polled 430,724 votes and the Labour group 427,057, only 3867 less. If the Government group had not -been depleted by the death of General Forsyth on the eve of the election, it is probable that Labour would not have secui'ed any representation in Victoria. There is also the other side of the picture. In New South Wales the Government candidates obtained 531,997 votes in a total poll of 1,137,212, yet they-failed to secure a seat. Similarly in South Australia Labour won the three seats though the Government candidates polled 198,326 out of a total of 244,563. The preferential system certainly has some virtue in that it affords the elector an opportunity to express his preferences, but it is also capable of producing extraordinary results. As in 1925, in which Labour suffered a severe setback, a swing of a substantial portion of votes from any particular party robs it of any representation whatever. Again, • when the difference in the aggregate polled .by the respective parties is insignificant in a vote ot nearly 3,000,000, the party favoured with the margin, however small, receives the overwhelming advantage. There is a -body of public opinion that believes that the preferential system should he replaced with the proportional system. It is claimed that under the latter system minorities would be represented in .proportion to the number of votes received. If the system had operated at the last two elections Labour would be represented in the new Senate by 15, perhaps 16, instead of only seven as at present, and the constitution of the House would, the advocates of the proportional system declare, reflect the political views of the peopie as perfectly as an intelligent use of the franchise could make possible.