Paul Keating wants to get rid of the turbulent minorities in the Senate. Just as Henry hated his executive power being interfered with the turbulent priest Archbishop Thomas a’Becket in the 12th century, Keating hates the exercise of his executive power being questioned by the Senate. Just as Henry sent a few knightly thugs to murder a’Becket, Keating is musing with changing the Senate election system to rid himself of the turbulent Kernot.
His scheme, however, has some very high constitutional and practical hurdles.
At present the Senate is elected by proportional representation with each state as one electorate. In a half-Senate election for six senators, a candidate needs 14.3 per cent of the vote to get a seat, or a lot less if it is the last seat and preferences are counted. If it is a double-dissolution election for 12 senators a candidate needs only 7.7 per cent. It means minor parties are able to get seats.
Keating and the Government leader in the Senate, Gareth Evans, have mused about electing the Senate like the House of Representatives, on a single-member electorate basis. Essentially, only major parties win single-member seats. An alternative is to keep each state as a single electorate but change the voting system from preferential to first-past the post. Under that plan voters would mark six crosses and the six candidates with the most crosses would get seats, instead of marking them 1, 2, 3, etc as now. Once again only major party candidates would win seats.
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