Australian electoral system

The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting (known elsewhere as instant runoff voting) and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate. This article deals with elections to the Australian Parliament. Different systems are used for the states and territories.

Compulsory voting

Australia is one of the few countries in which it is compulsory to vote. It is also compulsory to enrol (register) to vote. Compulsory voting was introduced in 1924 http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa060100a.htm. It was felt that since 60,000 Australians (about 1.3% of the national population) had died in World War I defending freedom, Australians had a duty to use the freedoms so dearly bought. The immediate impetus for compulsory voting at federal level was the low voter turnout (59.38%) http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/turnout/ in the federal elections of 1922. Voting is compulsory both at federal elections and at elections for the state and territory legislatures. In some states voting at municipal elections is also compulsory. Although about 5% of enrolled voters fail to vote at most elections, prosecutions for failure to vote are rare and the fine is nominal.

Related Topics:
Australia - Compulsory to vote - 1924 - World War I - 1922

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is commonly (but wrongly) claimed that it is only compulsory to attend a polling place and have one's name checked against the electoral roll. In fact, Section 245 of the Electoral Act http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/57/0/PA003170.htm says that "It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election... The Electoral Commissioner must, after polling day at each election, prepare for each Division a list of the names and addresses of the electors who appear to have failed to vote at the election." Such electors are then required to offer an acceptable explanation (for example, illness or religious prohibition), or pay a fine.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In practice, while illegal, informal voting - going through the motions of voting without actually filling in a valid ballot - is near-impossible to prosecute, given the secret nature of the ballot. Over 95% of eligible Australians attend polling, and in both 2001 and 2004 only around 5% of Representatives votes were informalhttp://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/informal/summary.htm.

Related Topics:
2001 - 2004

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some political scientists believe that compulsory voting benefits the Australian Labor Party, while others dispute this. It is argued that most of the social groups who would tend not to vote if voting were voluntary are more inclined to vote Labor (people from the ethnic and immigrant communities, indigenous Australians, and people with lower levels of education). Occasionally conservative politicians or libertarian intellectuals argue for the abolition of compulsory voting on philosophical grounds, but no government has ever attempted to abolish it.

Related Topics:
Australian Labor Party - Indigenous Australians - Libertarian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following the 2004 federal elections, at which the Liberal-National coalition government won a majority in both Houses, a senior minister, Senator Nick Minchin, said that he favoured the abolition of compulsory voting. The government has given no indication, however, that it would legislate to this effect. Some prominent Liberals, such as Petro Georgiou, former chair of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, have spoken in favour of compulsory voting.

Related Topics:
2004 federal elections - Liberal - National - Nick Minchin - Petro Georgiou

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~