After Saturday’s election in South Australia, Labor might cling to power in a minority government. Although counting continues, it is expected that two independent MPs will hold the balance of power in the lower house. The Liberal Party is complaining that although it won almost 53% of the statewide two-party-preferred vote, it did not translate into a majority of seats. This occurs when a party performs strongly in its own safe seats, but narrowly loses in marginal seats. Former SA premier John Olsen wants the system changed: “The fact that we have now had 1989, 2002, 2010 and 2014 (elections) where the Liberal Party has got 52 or 53 per cent of the vote and hasn’t been able to form government is clearly indicating that the process by which the boundaries are drawn is not producing a result that the majority of South Australians want.” The Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission is required to draw the borders between electorates “fairly”, and says this is a difficult and imprecise task.
Prime Minister grilled by Year 9s
Students from Sydney’s Newtown High School on a trip to Canberra were surprised by an impromptu question-and-answer session with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. After two female students grilled him on the repeal of the carbon tax laws and his opposition to same-sex marriage, the Prime Minister suggested, “Let’s have a bloke’s question, okay, [like] what football team do you support?” Instead, a schoolboy asked him why his government turned back asylum seeker boats. The final question: “Not saying I don’t trust you or anything, [but] a simple question, why is a man the Minister for Women?” A video of the exchange has been viewed over 60,000 times.
Palmer says Tas Electoral Act unconstitutional
The Palmer United Party has been accused of breaching Tasmanian electoral laws by publishing the names and photos of political opponents without their consent. Clive Palmer said the law “was only directed at people who published, printed or distributed, and of course our party has not printed, published, or distributed anything—it’s all been done by the Hobart Mercury“. Palmer may have a point: while some rules extend to people who “permit or authorise another person to publish” material, section 196 is narrower. However, a letter sent directly to voters by Palmer also apparently breaches the law. He declared: “I intend to write another one tonight you know, because nobody is going to stop me as a Member of the House of Representative having a dialogue with the Australian people.” He suggested the High Court’s decisions on freedom of political communication would protect him: “There’s no legal problem. Any first-year lawyer can tell you that. You’ve only got to read the high court judgments on it and you’ve only got to read the Act.”
Indigenous backbenchers threaten to quit
The NT Government’s four Indigenous MPs are threatening to break away from the Country Liberal Party and start their own party. Constituents in remote communities have been disappointed by broken election promises, and the backbench MPs say they are being ignored by their party’s ministers. Their failure to influence government policies is surprising, as it was reported last year that the Indigenous MPs “hold the balance of power in a caucus of 16”, and were instrumental in Adam Giles’s appointment to the chief ministership. However, the group’s leader, Alison Anderson, was demoted from cabinet last September. She has defected from a political party before: in 2009, she quit as a Labor MP, sitting as an independent for two years before joining the CLP.
Conservatives more likely to cross the floor
Until the WA senate election is finalised, the Abbott Government will not know the final makeup of the Senate. Peter Hartcher reports that it is expected to need the support of six or seven crossbenchers to pass any bills opposed by Labor and the Greens. And it’s not just the opposition parties that might create difficulties: “In the 54 years from 1950 to 2004, 245 members and senators crossed the floor to vote against their own party, or 24 per cent of the parliamentarians who served, according to the parliamentary library. … The vast majority of these 245—nine out of ten—were conservatives.”
Constitution gives Tasmania extra MPs
Section 24 of the Constitution requires the number of House of Representatives electorates in each state to be “in proportion to the respective numbers of their people”—with the exception that there be a minimum of five MHRs from each state. NSW Senator-elect David Leyonhjelm argues that this is undemocratic: because Tasmania’s population growth has been very slow since federation, “while each federal electorate in NSW has about 95,000 voters, in Tasmania there are fewer than 70,000”. He says the five member minimum should be abolished, and “respect for the principles of equality before the law and one vote one value should be embedded in the Constitution, giving Tasmania the same representation as other Australians.”
ACT parliament set to expand
The ACT government and opposition have endorsed a plan to increase the size of the territory’s unicameral parliament from 17 to 25 members. The ACT Electoral Commission recommended an expansion because MPs represent three times more electors than any other jurisdiction except Tasmania, and the small cabinet means ministers are forced to manage multiple portfolios. However, the change will reduce the proportion of seats won by minor parties.
Votes depend on trusty ute
After 1370 votes were lost, forcing WA to hold a fresh Senate election, former police chief Mick Keelty was appointed to review the Australian Electoral Commission’s processes. He indicated that there was some room for improvement: “It’s very Australian to have a ute pull up in a place in the middle of the night and throw boxes (of ballot papers) from one ute to another ute. I don’t want to absolutely break this process. It works. It works well. It works on trust, but it’s a century-old system and it needs to be lifted into 2014.”
Palmer defends attendance record
Since his election in November 2013, Clive Palmer has attended parliament for 14 out of 24 sittings (58%). He defended his attendance, saying: “Not everything that happens in Parliament is of any substance or any reality. But what’s more important is that we think about the people in this country and look after them.”
Senate might clip govt’s wings
The Abbott Government may have difficulty passing its proposed reforms of the airline industry, as minor party and independent crossbenchers hold the balance of power in the Senate—and the re-run of the WA Senate election due to lost ballot papers might make it even tougher.