2014-06-23
Senator Lee Rhiannon
At the last federal election some candidates were elected to the Senate with less than one per cent of the primary vote.
In Victoria the Motoring Enthusiasts Party Senator was elected with 0.5 per cent of the vote. In Western Australia the Australian Sports Party came close to winning with just 0.2 per cent of the vote. The quota to get elected is 14.3 per cent of the vote.
In the months that followed the 2013 election many voters and commentators were shocked to realise that our political system could be abused in this way allowing candidates and parties to negotiate backroom preference deals that take power out of the hand of voters.
Under our current system these preference swaps between parties are well within the rules. But in many cases it means that voters' preferences went to parties with policies that are not consistent with their voting intention.
2013 was not the first time we have seen perverse outcomes in the Senate. In 2004 Family First took one of the six Victorian Senate seats with less than two per cent of the vote. Family First were elected on preferences from the Labor Party, highlighting that this issue goes beyond micro parties.
Now these back room deals could become a thing of the past if the recommendations from a parliamentary committee are adopted.
Recommendations put forward by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters mean that we have a real chance of fixing what has become widely recognised as a broken electoral voting system for the Senate. The Coalition and Labor are now advocating these reforms along with the Greens.
The recommendations include optional preferential voting above the line, partial preferential voting below the line, the removal of group voting tickets, and some changes to party registration.
These reforms would mean that the incentive to form front parties and to harvest votes through preference deals is removed. Preferences will still be allocated, but it will be up to the voter to decide where preferences flow.
For the Greens, these reforms have been a long time coming. As a state MP, I introduced a plan for Optional Preferential Above-The-Line Voting that was adopted by the NSW parliament. The impetus for the change in NSW came after 1999 election when voters had to manage a ballot paper one metre wide and decide who to vote for out of 264 candidates representing 80 groups. The reforms the Greens campaigned for were eventually agreed to by NSW Labor and the Coalition, and have now successfully operated in three NSW state elections.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown has also taken the case for reform to the federal parliament, introducing a bill so voters in the Senate ballot would determine their own preferences. At the time the major parties were resistant to this reform.
Even now, there is a lot of work ahead of us to enact the Joint Committee's recommendations. Although the major parties backed Senate voting reforms in the Joint Committee report, the government has not yet introduced the required legislation.
From July 1 new Senators will be sworn in and those on the crossbench will share the balance of power. The Greens are concerned that the Coalition and Labor could shy away from introducing legislation to fix our electoral laws for fear of angering new Senators elected under the existing system.
With some 1.6 million eligible Australians not enrolling to vote, it is more important than ever to restore confidence in our electoral system. We have been campaigning to put pressure on the major parties not to back out of these reforms.
You can support the Greens campaign by writing letters to the editor, calling your local radio station, or writing to the Special Minister for State.
This is a most important campaign as strengthening the role of the voting public will help clean up Australian politics by restoring confidence in our democratic institutions.
Lee Rhiannon is the Australian Greens Senator for New South Wales and the party's democracy spokesperson. Lee is a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which has put forward the proposed reforms.
To find out more about how to support the campaign for senate voting reform, visit www.greensmps.org.au/reform-senate-voting.