Democrat leader Senator Meg Lees has called for a new electoral system for the House of Representatives.
She says the present system disenfranchises up to 25 per cent of voters who vote for minor parties.
Senator Lees wants 15 to 20 per cent of seats reserved as a top up to the other constituency seats. She has proposed a formula similar to that proposed by the Jenkins Royal Commission in Britain.
It would mean that about 30 seats in the House would be determined by the overall vote a party obtained in each state. (Details of the formula are explained in an opinion piece on Page 9.)
In a speech delivered to the Sydney Institute last night, Senator Lees argued that it was the House or Representatives, not the Senate, that was unrepresentative. She rejected calls in an earlier speech to the institute by the Liberals’ Senator Helen Coonan for changes to the Senate voting that would make it more difficult for minor-party candidates to get elected.
Senator Lees said the Senate could not be described as hostile.
“”Two Bills negatived, 427 passed. 99.54 per cent passed. Now can someone explain to me again just how hostile the Senate is,” she said.
She said the present house of Representatives voting system delivered a rubber stamp to the Executive Government and left large parts of the electorate unrepresented.
“”The 30 to 40 safe Opposition seats are largely ignored by Governments,” she said.
Governments were able to focus on marginal seats and in tight elections even win despite getting fewer two-party preferred votes than its opponents.
“”Mr Howard enjoys a 12-seat majority in the House of Representatives having attracted only 48.7 per cent of the two-party preferred vote,” she said. “”If democracy can be defined as a situation wherein the will of the majority prevails, then Mr Beazley should have formed government after the October election.”
She warned that the Howard Government had only kick-started the debate on changes to the electoral system because it “”is the drive of the Executive to secure for itself absolute power”.