PARTY CRASHERS /by DANIEL WILLS
13/11/2013
Published in The Adelaide Advertiser, page 1
Bid to stop low-vote candidates winning seats DANIEL WILLS STATE POLITICAL EDITOR POLITICAL parties that win a tiny fraction of the popular vote would be blocked from taking seats in South Australia’s Upper House under radical reforms backed by the State Government. With just four months until the March state election, Deputy Premier John Rau has revealed dramatic plans to overhaul the voting system which aim to freeze out so-called micro-parties. CONTINUED PAGE 7 Plan to stop micro-party crashers FROM PAGE 1 They include abolishing preferential voting and increasing the cost and red tape associated with nominating. Mr Rau told The Advertiser that September’s federal election, which put a group of obscure parties into the Senate, showed the system could be corrupted by “backroom deals”. The move comes as Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer confirmed plans to mount an all-out assault on the SA election after securing up to three Senate spots at the federal poll. Mr Rau said publicity around the “bizarre” federal re- sult increased risk of the SA election being “gamed” by tiny parties that combined small votes to get unknown candidates elected. “The system we have is completely exposed now as capable of being manipulated,” he said. Under the current system, voters number a series of boxes from their most preferred candidate to least. Under the new plan, they would instead support a single party or independent candidate. Parties would first be given seats for each quota of votes they achieved in full. A quota is roughly equal to the total number of votes cast divided by the number of available seats. The remaining seats would be allocated to the parties with the most votes left. Currently, small parties can pass preferences to each other to create surprise results. If in force at the 2010 state election, the proposed new system would have stopped Dignity For Disability’s Kelly Vincent claiming an Upper House seat with 1.2 per cent of the vote. An extra Liberal would have been elected in her place. The Greens and Family First each won a seat at the 2010 election and would still have done so under the proposed new system. If used at the federal election, Mr Rau’s proposed voting model would have re-elected Labor Senator Don Farrell and given a seat to Senator Nick Xenophon’s running mate. They would have been elected in place of the Greens and Family First. The State Government is not proposing any major changes to voting in the Lower House. Mr Rau said the proposed system, known as SaintLague and used in parts of Europe, would be relatively easy to administer and could be in place in time for the March election. However, the plan faces opposition from the Liberals and minor parties. Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade said it would be “reckless” to rush the most “radical” electoral reform proposed in decades through Parliament on the eve of an election. “It’s impossible for us to properly consider and consult on those reforms in the time frame,” he said late yesterday. “After all, none of us had heard of (Saint-Lague) a week ago. “We can’t afford to throw that away out of what is basically a short-term reaction to the latest federal result.”
