Armadale-WA - Western Australia needs equal voting rights

This web page is to explain the absence of equal voting rights in Western Australia and why Western Australia needs equal voting rights



The Western Australian Constitution Act needs to be amended, to provide and ensure equal voting rights for all Western Australian voters, inasmuch as is practicably possible.

Readers should be mindful of the words at the start of the second paragraph of the USA Declaration of Independence, of 1776, as written by Thomas Jefferson;

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

and readers should be mindful of the words of Article 1 of the Declaration Of Rights Of Man And The Citizen, of 1789, of France;

"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common good."

with both of those citations construed as having the word "men" representing all humans, regardless of gender.

Now, in the context of the above, is the following.

At
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australian_Legislative_Council
at at 04 July 2020, was

"
When Western Australia gained responsible government in 1890, a bicameral system was adopted and the Legislative Council became a house of review for legislation passed by the popularly elected Legislative Assembly. This Council consisted of 15 members, all nominated by the governor. However, it was provided that once the population of the colony reached 60,000, the Legislative Council would become elective. The colony was expected to take many years to reach a population of 60,000 but the discovery of the eastern goldfields and the consequent gold rush caused that figure to be reached by 1893. The constitution was then amended to make the Legislative Council an elective house of 21 seats, with three members to be elected from each of seven provinces. The first election to the Council was held following the dissolution of parliament in June 1894.

This system was retained until 1962 when, over the next two years, the Council was reformed, creating a series of two-member electorates. Members were elected for six years with provision for re-election of one every three years. Universal suffrage was also granted in order to bring the Council into line with the Assembly. This arrangement remained until 10 June 1987 when the Burke Labor government, with the conditional support of the National Party, introduced the present system of multi-member electorates and a method of proportional representation which is, however, 'weighted' to give extra representation to rural constituents. The legislation was made possible because the Australian Democrats in 1986 negotiated an election preference flow to Labor in return for an explicit undertaking on Legislative Council electoral reform, which resulted in the defeat of a number of Liberal councillors who were committed to opposing such reform.

Until 2005 the state used a zonally weighted electoral system for both houses of parliament. In effect, this meant that the vote of a Perth voter counted for less than that of a rural voter. The difference was less marked in the Assembly than in the Legislative Council, whose metropolitan regions are numerically weighted so that up to two rural members are elected by the same number of votes needed to elect a single member from Perth. This style of weighting has not been adopted by any other Australian state.

While the Liberal Party and Labor Party were both advantaged and disadvantaged by this system, it strongly benefited the National Party. During the 1990s, Liberal Premier Richard Court considered changing the system along the lines of that in place in South Australia, but backed down in the face of National Party opposition.

Effective on 20 May 2005, for the election of members of the Legislative Council, the State was divided into 6 electoral regions by community of interest, 3 metropolitan and 3 rural, each electing 6 members to the Legislative Council.[2] The regions were defined geographically and functionally, and also included partial requirements for equal numbers of Legislative Assembly districts. However, all previously elected members remained until the following election on 6 September 2008. Even with the reforms, rural areas are still significantly overrepresented. According to ABC election analyst Antony Green, the rural weighting is still significant enough that it is all but impossible for a Liberal premier in Western Australia to govern without National support, even if the Liberals win enough Legislative Assembly seats to theoretically allow them to govern alone.
"

So, apparently, control of the WA state parliament, was given to the state National Party.

At
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_regions_of_Western_Australia
as at 04 July 2020, was

"
Before 1989 electoral divisions for the Legislative Council were known as electoral provinces. The Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No.2) 1963, effective from the 1965 state election, abolished the ten existing three-member provinces, replacing them with 15 two-member provinces. One new province was added at the 1977 state election. Some of the new provinces bore the same names as the previous provinces.
"

So, apparently, 16 two member electorates existed for the state upper house, until the system of electoral provinces for the state upper house, was replaced with the current corruption, designed to give the state National party control of the state parliament, regardless of who wins the majority of seats in the lower house, and, regardless of who wins the majority of all of the seats in the parliament.

The current upper house has 36 members.

The state lower house has 59 members, 59 being a prime number.

The solution is quite simple; to increase the number of seats in the state lower house, to 60, and, with 36 being the current number of members of the state upper house, to increase the number of members of the upper house, to 40, and, to change the structure of the upper house, to consisting of twenty, two member electorates, with each upper house electorate then covering three lower house electorates, of as similar nature as possible, so as to make the members of the upper house, more accessible and accountable, to their constituents, than they now are, and to embody both of these changes in the state Constitution Act, and, as a third subsection to the section defining these numbers for both chambers, embedding in the state Constitution Act, that, for each of the two chambers of the state parliament, the electorates of each chamber, shall not vary from any other electorate in the chamber, by more than 10% of the number of voters, with the fifth subsection to that section, that the section shall not be changed other than by a referendum of all of the eligible state voters, with a bill for such a referendum,being required to be passed by a majority vote of each of the two chambers of the state parliament, or, where the lower house votes for such a bill and the upper house votes against such a referendum bill, a simple majority in a combined vote of both chambers of the parliament, together.

This is really quite simple, and, would replace the corruption that we now have, and, should satisfy all parties other than the national Party, which was given control of the WA state parliament, with the National Party then giving the finger to the Alan Carpenter Labor largest minority party, after the 2008 election;

"
The election saw a substantial swing in most seats away from Labor, towards the Liberal and Greens parties, resulting in a hung parliament. While Labor remained the largest party, it was two seats short of a majority. Under pressure to resign as Parliamentary Labor leader, Carpenter began negotiations with the National Party with a view to forming a minority government. However, the Nationals ultimately decided to support the Liberals in forming a minority government.
"
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Carpenter

So, the current electoral distribution of the upper house of the WA state parliament is designed to give the WA state National Party control over the WA state parliament, and whoever wins government in the March 2021 election, should hold a referendum to be held by the end of 2021, and, a new full, general election as soon as possible, after the referendum, if the change is approved, if the metropolitan people vote for it at the election, so that the metropolitan people can become equal under state law, with the non metropolitan people, instead of being worth only a sixth of a non-metropolitan person, so that the people of WA can become more equally represented in the state parliament.

The following electoral numbers are as published at 04 July 2020.

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-east-metropolitan is
"Number of Electors: 362,932 (9 March 2015)"

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-north-metropolitan is
"Number of Electors: 362,608 (9 March 2015)"

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-south-metropolitan is
"Number of Electors: 377,634 (9 March 2015)"

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-agricultural is
"Number of Electors: 98,114 (9 March 2015)"

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-mining-and-pastoral is
"Number of Electors: 63,893 (9 March 2015)"

At https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/webcms.nsf/content/parliamentary-library-electorates-south-west is
"Number of Electors: 205,270 (9 March 2015)"

Thus is the vote of constituents of some metropolitan electorates of the Western Australian upper house of state parliament, worth only about one sixth of the vote of some other Western Australian voters, depending on the electorate of which the voter is a constituent.

Thus, as Armadale is part of the East Metropolitan Region, we, the people of Armadale, thence, the people of the East Metropolitan Region, are officially classified by the state parliament of Western Australia, as inferior to other people in the state, and, this will so remain, until we, and, all of the voters in Western Australia, have equal voting rights.

The Western Australian state parliament, is .... "Animal Farm"...
"All animals are equal, and, some are more equal than others".

The members of the legislature are supposed to represent the interests of the constituents, not the interests of the members of the state legislature.

And, the interests of the people of Western Australia, can not, and, will not, be represented in the state legislature, until the voters of Western Australia, all have equal voting rights, for all of the members of the state legislature.

Thus do we, the people of Western Australia, need equal voting rights for members of the upper house of the Western Australian state parliament, for all Western Australian voters, to be implemented using the electoral structure described above;

to increase the number of seats in the state lower house, to 60, and,
to increase the number of members of the upper house, to 40, and,
to change the structure of the upper house, to consisting of twenty, two member electorates, with each upper house electorate then covering three lower house electorates, of as similar nature as possible, so as to make the members of the upper house, more accessible and accountable, to their constituents, than they now are, and to embody both of these changes in the state Constitution Act, and, as a third subsection to the section defining these numbers for both chambers, embedding in the state Constitution Act, that, for each of the two chambers of the state parliament, the electorates of each chamber, shall not vary from any other electorate in the chamber, by more than 10% of the number of voters, with the fifth subsection to that section, that the section shall not be changed other than by a referendum of all of the eligible state voters, with a bill for such a referendum,being required to be passed by a majority vote of each of the two chambers of the state parliament, or, where the lower house votes for such a bill and the upper house votes against such a referendum bill, a simple majority in a combined vote of both chambers of the parliament, together.



I can be contacted by email by clicking on my name at the end of this sentence - Bret .

This web page is authorised and printed by Bret Busby, 2 Pelham Street Armadale.

(Whilst the web page may be printed by someone else, I am advised that the wording in the above sentence, is required by the legislation governing an election.)

This web page was last updated on 09 October 2020