Tomorrow (SATY) the people of the ACT will be asked to vote in a referendum on the electoral system. The referendum will ask whether voters want to entrench the Hare-Clark system. This is a very different question from whether one approves or disapproves of Hare-Clark or any other system. All entrenchment does is say: “”Before you change this system or bring in a totally new system you have to have a two-thirds majority of the Assembly or a referendum”.
Entrenchment takes the major questions of the electoral system out of the hands of the politicians who might have a bare majority in the Assembly at any given time and insists that either the people approve any new system or that a broad consensus (two-thirds majority) of Members of the Assembly approve it. In short, neither the Labor nor Liberal party can get a bare majority in the Assembly and change the system to suit itself. We have seen an attempt at that which nearly succeeded. In 1992 an advisory referendum voted 65 per cent in favour of the Hare-Clark system with no party voting.
However, the Labor Party attempted to subvert that by proposing above-the-line party voting. Fortunately, it lost 8-9 in the Assembly, with the Liberals and independents voting against it. With that close shave the Liberals and independents called for a referendum to entrench the present electoral system to stop changes without consensus. It is unfortunate that people are being asked to vote again on the electoral system before they have had a chance to see it work. But even if the Hare-Clark system turns out to be a complete shambles _ though Tasmania’s 80-year experience with it suggests not _ it is still important to have a break on how any new system is implemented.
It should not be left in the hands of those politicians who have a bare majority at any one time, especially as the ACT does not have an Upper House. For that reason alone people should vote Yes today, whatever they might think of the Hare-Clark system. It may be it works well in the next couple of elections or it may be that some years down the track the ACT will move to a different system. If so, it should be one approved by the people or approved by a broad consensus of its elected politicians, not just a bare majority of them.