Western Australian Legislative Council Totally Explained

Everything about Western Australian Legislative Council totally explained

The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth. The Legislative Council today has 34 members, elected for fixed four-year terms. Each member is elected using a proportional and preferential voting system using the single transferable vote method, and represents one of six multi-member regions. Two of the regions elect seven members, while four elect five. Unlike in some other states, the government may not always have a majority in the Legislative Council, and may have to rely on minor parties, such as the Greens, to pass legislation. As with all other Australian states and territories, voting is compulsory for all resident Australian citizens — and eligible British citizens (for example, those permanently resident and on the electoral roll prior to the passage of the Australia Act) — over the legal voting age of 18.
Western Australia uses a zonal electoral system for both its houses of parliament, and is the only Australian state or territory to do so. In short, this means that the vote of a person in Perth is worth less than a rural voter. The difference is particularly apparent in the Legislative Council, with city electorates artificially set to contain many more voters than rural electorates. This also allows major disparities that wouldn't be allowed to occur in other states - on average, rural voters have twice the voting influence as do city voters.
While the Liberal Party of Australia and Australian Labor Party are both advantaged and disadvantaged by this system, it strongly benefits the National Party of Australia. 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.

History

The Legislative Council was Western Australia's first representative parliament. It was first created in 1832 as an appointive body. Initially it consisted only of official members; that is, public officials whose office guaranteed them a place on the Council. Three years later, an attempt was made to expand the Council by including four unofficial members to be nominated by the governor. However the public demand for elected rather than nominated members was so great that implementation of the change was delayed until 1838.
   In 1850, the British Government passed an Act that permitted the Australian colonies to establish Legislative Councils that were one-third nominated and two-thirds elected, but only under the condition that the colonies take responsibility for the costs of their own government. Because of this provision, Western Australia was slow to adopt the system. In 1867, the Governor of Western Australia responded to public demand for representative government by holding unofficial elections, and subsequently nominating to the Council each elected person. Three years later, representative government was officially adopted, and the Legislative Council was changed to consist of 12 elected members and 6 members nominated by the governor. Suffrage wasn't universal, with only landowners and those with a certain level of income being granted suffrage.
   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 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 the limit 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, with one member facing re-election every three years, in a similar manner to the Victorian Legislative Council. Universal suffrage was also granted, in order to bring the Council into line with the Assembly. This remained until the late 1980s, when Labor Premier Brian Burke introduced the current system, with the support of the National Party.

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