When I started this blog, it was more of an impulse, there were few things that I wanted to comment on, and once I did, I lost interest. That was until the recent election in Victoria, Australia. Somehow the results of the election galvanised in my mind the myriad of discussions I had with my friends, colleagues and education providers. I suddenly realised what I want to say, share and discuss (hopefully) because as a citizen who dedicated his professional career to making things better for service users (I am working in the regulatory field) I can say that I am not happy with the direction our system is taking and the risks that it brings.
Due to this I will embark on a journey of writing several short articles (or essays if you will) to prompt a discussion with a hope of making improvement where we can and will start with the political system.
Representative democracy.
This was the main thing that attracted me to Australia, ability to leave corrupt post-Soviet territories and start a new life in a country that embraces representative democracy (aka system of representative government), implied values attached to it and fair election process. Fast-forward few decades and the year is 2022 and the election results in Victoria make me doubt if our election system is aligned with principles of representative government.
But before I proceed some necessary definitions — A representative government is a type of government comprised of politicians who represent certain individuals or groups. By definition this means a government elected by people and it should proportionally represent the views of those people. Yes, there is also the problem of whether elected representatives should act merely as a relay mechanism for the views of their constituents, or whether they should act more independently.[1] But this is a topic I will return to in later posts (but those who are interested are invited to engage in comments and I will respond to your questions).
With this out of the way, here’s how Victorian population is represented in the Lower House (which has a total of 88 seats) after the 2022 election:
· Australian Labor Party (ALP) secured a majority of 56 seats, 63.63% of the lower house (as of the moment of writing on 10/12/22 the official number is 51 due to recheck being in progress)[2],
· their main opposition, the Liberal and National Party coalition (LNP), secured 27 seats 30.6% of the lower house (18 Liberal, 8 Nationals and one being rechecked)
· the Australian Greens secured 4 seats, 4.5% of the lower house.
· 1 district election postponed due to a passing of a candidate.[3]
As it stands none of the other minor parties (16) and independents managed to gain a seat in the Lower House. The result of the election on its face indicates that vast majority of Victorians support the ALP, when in fact it is not the case.
The data published by the Victorian Electoral Commission provides a very different breakdown of primary votes of the parties that received more than 1% of votes (9 of them):[4]
· ALP received 37.03%
· Liberal received 29.6%
· Australian Greens received 11.5%
· The Nationals received 4.77%
· Family First Victoria received 3.05%
· Animal Justice Party received 2.51%
· Freedom Party Victoria received 1.71%
· Victorian Socialist received 1.35%
· Labour DLP received 1.17%
In a state where 3.6M formal votes were received, Australian Greens received quarter of a million more votes than the Nationals, but received twice as less seats, while the other minority parties, whose support was around 10% of voters) will not get any representation in the lower house whatsoever, similarly as any of the independent candidates.
These numbers show that in a representative democracy the final balance of power in the lower house is not representative at all of actual support that the competing parties had. If the lower house seats were to be distributed proportional to the votes each party received than we would’ve had the following (round up to the closest decimal):
· ALP at 33 seats
· LNP at 30 seats (26 Liberal and 4 Nationals)
· Australian Greens at 10 seats
· Family First Victoria at 3 seats
· Animal Justice Party at 2 seats
· Freedom Party Victoria at 2 seats
· Victorian Socialist received with 1 seat
· Labour DLP with 1 seat
The above is summarised in the table below
How did this happen one will ask? How come there is such a big discrepancy between actual voter support and representation in the Lower House where only 4 out of 9 parties are represented? The answer is the Preferential Voting system adopted in Australia. Sure, one can argue that without it and based on actual vote results the elected parties would be forced to create a minority government. However, I would argue that minority government, where various parties have to work together and come to an agreement that would benefit all, is the epitome of democracy. This would have been truly representative of the opinions that have substantial support in Victoria. Alas, it is not the case. But how did the Preferential Voting lead to such results? This will be exactly what I would cover in my next post that will discuss the:
· Preferential Voting system
· Its failings
· Suggest a new system that we can adopt in line with principles of representative government.
[1] https://australianpolitics.com/democracy/key-terms/representative-government
[2] https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/results/2022-state-election-results/results-summary
[3] https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/results/2022-state-election-results/results-by-district/narracan-district-results
[4] https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/results/2022-state-election-results/results-summary/lower-house-overall-results
