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Richard Love
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Submitted on 21/02/2012 - 1:48pm relating to the issues Basis for eligibility for list seats (thresholds), By-election candidates, Dual Candidacy, Order of candidates on the list, Overhang, Proportion of electorate seats to list seats
Should the 5% threshold be kept or changed? Why? If you recommend change, what should it be and why?:
The 5% threshold should be changed.
It should be lowered to the proportion of voters that is represented by a single seat. That is, about 0.83% of the vote in a 120 seat parliament.
This is desirable because it is more democratic. Parliament will better represent how people voted.
Should the one electorate seat threshold be kept or changed? Why? If you recommend change, what should it be and why?:
Redundant if the above change is made. Although a party which wins only (one or more) electorate seats without gaining sufficient party vote to gain a seat, should be allowed to take its seats. This could lead to an overhang in parliament.
Should list MPs continue to be able to stand as candidates in by-elections? If so, why?:
Yes, because this allows the highest calibre of candidates to stand.
There is no problem. The voters are able to be informed by the media and through election campaigns what the consequence of their vote will be on parliament.
Should dual candidacy be kept? If so, why?:
Yes.
An electorate should not be able to veto a candidate returned on the party vote. Allowing electorates to veto gives more weight to the votes in some electorates than others, and is therefore undemocratic.
Dual candidacy is a good idea because it allows parties which have a broad appeal, but which do not have a high concentration of votes in a single electorate, to risk their best candidates in electorates. These leads to a more vigorous and informed debate in electorates.
In an election, should voters be able to alter the order of candidates from the list order decided by political parties?:
Political parties should determine the list order.
However, political parties should be compelled to include with the list a brief statement outlining how the list was selected. This is because it should be transparent to voters how a list was ordered, but the actual mechanism should be up to the party.
What should happen when a party wins more electorate seats than it would be entitled to under its share of the party vote?:
The overhang should remain and extra balance seats should be added to retain proportionality.
Is this a problem, and what should be done to fix it?:
This is a long-term problem. It either be fixed now or in the future. It will be better to fix now because otherwise we would be expecting a future parliament, that is weighted heavily in favour of electorates, to for less power for electorate seats. That is, we would be expecting the future legislators to vote against their own best interest. It is better to remove this possibility by making changes now.
The ratio of electorate to list seats should be fixed and as the number of electorate seats increases (or decreases) the number of list seats should be changed to maintain the ratio.