The Liberal and Labor Parties in Tasmania are to be condemned for their undemocratic collusion in planning to change the electoral system in that state. The electoral changes are likely to be passed at a special sitting next week. It will be followed almost immediately by an election on August 29. The change of the electoral system and the calling of an election 18 months early are highly suspicious.
The two major parties have colluded in a plan to reduce the number of Members of Parliament in Tasmania. That has superficial appeal, but the real aim is not to make MPs more efficient, or to cut down on the cost of representation. No; the real aim is to get rid of the Greens. The aim is to reduce the chances of minor parties and independents winning seats in the Tasmanian Lower House. At present, there are 35 MPs in the Lower House. There are five seven-member electorates. It means a minor party candidate can win with a quota of 12.5 per cent of the vote. Under the Liberal-Labor plan, the Lower House will have 25 MPs, five from each of the five electorates. That will require a quota of 16.6 per cent for a minor party candidate to get a seat.
The five electorates have identical boundaries to the five Federal seats in Tasmania. Tasmania is likely to have exactly five Federal MPs for some time to come. That is its entitlement as an Original State and it is unlikely its comparative population will entitle it to more for a long time.
At present the Liberal Premier, Tony Rundle, runs a minority Government with 17 of the 35 seats. Labor has 14 and the Greens have four. Labor refuses to govern with the support of the Greens due to acrimony during the last Labor Government under Michael Field which ended in Labor losing office and seats at the subsequent election.
The Greens had become a permanent feature of Tasmanian elections since the early 1980s. They have become the bane of the political lives of the Labor Party, which with its union links is keen on the jobs from development and forestry, and the Liberal Party, which with its business links is keen on development and industry. The greens have argued that forestry and extractive industries are transient job-creators and that the Government should be concentrating on high-education jobs and clean industry. Having held the balance of power for a decade and a half, the Liberal and Labor Party have now colluded to do the Greens in. Whatever one thinks of the Greens, the Liberal-Labor collusion on this in undemocratic and dangerous. Moreover, the reduction in the number of MPs will reduce the quality of representation in Tasmania. If the state were serious about reducing the number of politicians, it should abolish its Upper House and rely on the safeguard of proportional representation to ensure no major party gets unfettered power to govern.
As a broad principle, major constitutional changes should not take place in any state or territory without a referendum. The length of term of a parliament and the number of Members it has are both major constitutional issues.
Initially the Liberals wanted to reduce the number of MPs to six per electorate, totally 30. Labor’s counter proposal was five per electorate, totalling 25. In their desperation to get rid of meddlesome minor parties, the Liberals have now agreed to the Labor plan.
Perhaps the people will give the major parties their come uppance and the plan will fail. It may be that a minor party or independent candidate will get elected in each of the five electorates under the new plan. Then they would have one fifth of the seats, as against the present one-seventh. ACT experience indicates that is possible, if not probable.