Tasmanian Legislative Council
Encyclopedia
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers
of the Parliament of Tasmania
in Australia
. The other is the House of Assembly
. It sits in Parliament House
in the state capital, Hobart
. It is a unique parliamentary chamber in Australian politics in that it is the only chamber in any state parliament that is majority non partisan, with only 3 of 15 current MLCs being endorsed representatives of a political party.
method within 15 single-member seats. Each seat is intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Members of the Legislative Council are often referred to as MLCs.
Members in the council come up for re-election separately every six years. Elections will be held in three divisions one year, then two divisions the next year; following this pattern. The council can block supply and force any government to election. The council cannot be dissolved as there is nothing in the Tasmania
n constitution to allow this. The council cannot be reformed or abolished because the constitution does not recognise public referenda
. The only way reform could occur is with the council's own approval.
Tasmania's Legislative Council has never been controlled by a single political party; voters in Tasmania
have always supported independents over candidates endorsed by political parties. Labor
endorses a few candidates in some Legislative Council elections. The Labor party is the most successful of any political party in the council, there have been 18 Labor members in the Council's history. The Liberal
s maintain the view that the Legislative Council 'is not a party house', however in past elections the party has endorsed candidates with little success. The Liberals have only ever had two members in the Legislative Council—one of these, Peter McKay
, was first elected as an independent in 1976 but became a Liberal in 1991. The party instead backs independent conservatives, many of whom were previously Liberal candidates or members at state or federal level. An exception to this was the 2009 Pembroke by-election
where the Liberals stood candidate Vanessa Goodwin
who successfully won the seat. The Tasmanian Greens
endorse candidates in elections but have yet to win a seat on the council.
Candidates for Legislative Council elections are required to limit their expenditure to a specified limit ($10,000 in 2005; increasing by $500 per year). In addition, no other person or political party may incur expenditure to promote a candidate. This is a unique requirement in Australia: no other Australian state or federal elections are subject to expenditure limits.
As the Government is formed in the House of Assembly, a much smaller proportion of the Ministry comes from the Council.
effectively granting nationhood to the colony under the British Crown and Privy Council
. Starting as a body with six nominee members chosen by the Governor of Tasmania, an Imperial Act in 1828 enabled its expansion to 15 members, with the Governor as Presiding Officer.
The Council remained fully nominative until 21 October 1851, when the council was expanded to 24 members, with sixteen of them facing the voters and eight nominated by the Governor, who ceased to be a member. The first Speaker of the new Council was Sir Richard Dry
. The franchise
for these elections was extremely limited—only men over 30 could vote, and were required to own a certain amount of property. Former convicts, who made up a significant percentage of the colony's population, were not able to vote. The 1851 arrangements were a compromise struck by the Governor between the colonists' demands for representative government and the Colonial Office
's wish to control the colony through the Governor.
On 24 October 1856, an Act was proclaimed permitting the introduction of a bicameral
, representative Parliament with the creation of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
, where the power of the executive government resided, and the abolition of nominee positions on the Council. The Speaker's position was renamed President. An interesting feature of the Act is that it does not enable the Governor to dissolve the Legislative Council.
Like other democratic upper houses of that period, it was established using single-member seats elected using the first-past-the-post
system, with Hobart
and Launceston
being created as multi-member seats. Voters would simply cross off the names of those whom they did not wish to vote for. Members were elected to a six-year term, and terms were staggered in such a way that two or three members' terms expired each year and elections were held in the first week of May. In the event of resignation or death of a member during their term, a by-election
would be held to complete their term.
The 1907 reforms which saw the House of Assembly switch to using the Hare-Clark system, introduced preferential voting
to the Council. A redistribution in 1946 broke up the two multi-member seats into single-member seats.
Suffrage gradually improved from the late 19th century onwards, with the property franchise being first eased then abolished; ex-convicts, ex-servicemen and then women being granted the vote; the age of majority being reduced; and finally, full adult suffrage in 1968. The first woman to sit on the Legislative Council was Margaret McIntyre
in 1948. The first woman to chair the upper house was Phyllis Benjamin
in 1956.
In the 1990s, various Tasmanian governments attempted to cut the size of parliament. Various reports proposed reducing the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 19 seats to 15. Others including the Morling Report proposed abolishing the Council and merging some of the electorates into the Tasmanian House of Assembly
. However the council wouldn't agree to any of these proposals. During Tony Rundle
's government the Legislative Council finally allowed the Parliamentary Reform Bill 1998 passage, reducing the number of seats in the chamber from 19 to 15, and redistributing all seats through an independent Distribution Tribunal, abolishing a previous rural bias which had led to unequal seats. However, the seats were not named after their geographic location, often using land district or county
names unfamiliar to most residents, so considerable confusion for voters ensued in determining which seat they were to vote within.
Chambers of parliament
Many parliaments or other legislatures consist of two chambers : an elected lower house, and an upper house or Senate which may be appointed or elected by a different mechanism from the lower house. This style of two houses is called bicameral...
of the Parliament of Tasmania
Parliament of Tasmania
The Parliament of Tasmania consists of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Monarch represented by the Governor of Tasmania....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The other is the House of Assembly
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House...
. It sits in Parliament House
Parliament House, Hobart
Parliament House, Hobart has been the meeting place of the Government of Tasmania since 1841. The building was originally designed as a customs house, and from 1841 until 1904 when the customs offices were relocated, the building served both purposes....
in the state capital, Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
. It is a unique parliamentary chamber in Australian politics in that it is the only chamber in any state parliament that is majority non partisan, with only 3 of 15 current MLCs being endorsed representatives of a political party.
Overview
The Council has 15 members selected by the preferentialInstant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
method within 15 single-member seats. Each seat is intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Members of the Legislative Council are often referred to as MLCs.
Members in the council come up for re-election separately every six years. Elections will be held in three divisions one year, then two divisions the next year; following this pattern. The council can block supply and force any government to election. The council cannot be dissolved as there is nothing in the Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
n constitution to allow this. The council cannot be reformed or abolished because the constitution does not recognise public referenda
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. The only way reform could occur is with the council's own approval.
Tasmania's Legislative Council has never been controlled by a single political party; voters in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
have always supported independents over candidates endorsed by political parties. Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
endorses a few candidates in some Legislative Council elections. The Labor party is the most successful of any political party in the council, there have been 18 Labor members in the Council's history. The Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
s maintain the view that the Legislative Council 'is not a party house', however in past elections the party has endorsed candidates with little success. The Liberals have only ever had two members in the Legislative Council—one of these, Peter McKay
Peter McKay (Australian politician)
Peter Charles McKay was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 1976 until 1999.McKay was first elected as an independent member in the Electoral division of Pembroke after his father, Ben McKay died in office...
, was first elected as an independent in 1976 but became a Liberal in 1991. The party instead backs independent conservatives, many of whom were previously Liberal candidates or members at state or federal level. An exception to this was the 2009 Pembroke by-election
Pembroke state by-election, 2009
A by-election was held in the Tasmanian Legislative Council division of Pembroke on 1 August 2009. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting member Allison Ritchie.-Background:...
where the Liberals stood candidate Vanessa Goodwin
Vanessa Goodwin
Vanessa Goodwin is an Australian politician. She has been the Liberal Party member for the seat of Pembroke in the Tasmanian Legislative Council since the Pembroke by-election on 1 August 2009....
who successfully won the seat. The Tasmanian Greens
Tasmanian Greens
The Tasmanian Greens are a political party in Australia which developed from numerous environmental campaigns in Tasmania, including the flooding of Lake Pedder and the Franklin Dam campaign...
endorse candidates in elections but have yet to win a seat on the council.
Candidates for Legislative Council elections are required to limit their expenditure to a specified limit ($10,000 in 2005; increasing by $500 per year). In addition, no other person or political party may incur expenditure to promote a candidate. This is a unique requirement in Australia: no other Australian state or federal elections are subject to expenditure limits.
As the Government is formed in the House of Assembly, a much smaller proportion of the Ministry comes from the Council.
History
The Tasmanian Legislative Council was first created in 1825 as a unicameral legislature. The Australian Colonies Act passed by the British Parliament gave Van Diemens Land a free government when it split from New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
effectively granting nationhood to the colony under the British Crown and Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
. Starting as a body with six nominee members chosen by the Governor of Tasmania, an Imperial Act in 1828 enabled its expansion to 15 members, with the Governor as Presiding Officer.
The Council remained fully nominative until 21 October 1851, when the council was expanded to 24 members, with sixteen of them facing the voters and eight nominated by the Governor, who ceased to be a member. The first Speaker of the new Council was Sir Richard Dry
Richard Dry
Sir Richard Dry, KCMG was an Australian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 24 November 1866 until 1 August 1869 when he died in office...
. The franchise
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
for these elections was extremely limited—only men over 30 could vote, and were required to own a certain amount of property. Former convicts, who made up a significant percentage of the colony's population, were not able to vote. The 1851 arrangements were a compromise struck by the Governor between the colonists' demands for representative government and the Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Colonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
's wish to control the colony through the Governor.
On 24 October 1856, an Act was proclaimed permitting the introduction of a bicameral
Bicameralism
In the government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
, representative Parliament with the creation of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House...
, where the power of the executive government resided, and the abolition of nominee positions on the Council. The Speaker's position was renamed President. An interesting feature of the Act is that it does not enable the Governor to dissolve the Legislative Council.
Like other democratic upper houses of that period, it was established using single-member seats elected using the first-past-the-post
First-past-the-post
First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...
system, with Hobart
Electoral division of Hobart
The electoral division of Hobart is one of the fifteen electorates or seats in the Tasmanian Legislative Council. The seat was created in 2008 after a redistribution saw the former Wellington returned to its former name....
and Launceston
Electoral district of Launceston
The Electoral district of Launceston was a multi-member electoral district of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. It was based in Tasmania's second city, Launceston, and the surrounding rural area....
being created as multi-member seats. Voters would simply cross off the names of those whom they did not wish to vote for. Members were elected to a six-year term, and terms were staggered in such a way that two or three members' terms expired each year and elections were held in the first week of May. In the event of resignation or death of a member during their term, a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
would be held to complete their term.
The 1907 reforms which saw the House of Assembly switch to using the Hare-Clark system, introduced preferential voting
Instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
to the Council. A redistribution in 1946 broke up the two multi-member seats into single-member seats.
Suffrage gradually improved from the late 19th century onwards, with the property franchise being first eased then abolished; ex-convicts, ex-servicemen and then women being granted the vote; the age of majority being reduced; and finally, full adult suffrage in 1968. The first woman to sit on the Legislative Council was Margaret McIntyre
Margaret McIntyre
Margaret Edgeworth David McIntyre OBE was the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania , representing the seat of Cornwall in the Legislative Council....
in 1948. The first woman to chair the upper house was Phyllis Benjamin
Phyllis Benjamin
Phyllis Jean Benjamin AO MBE , Australian Labor Party politician, was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in the electorate of Hobart from 10 May 1952 until retirement in 1976....
in 1956.
In the 1990s, various Tasmanian governments attempted to cut the size of parliament. Various reports proposed reducing the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 19 seats to 15. Others including the Morling Report proposed abolishing the Council and merging some of the electorates into the Tasmanian House of Assembly
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House...
. However the council wouldn't agree to any of these proposals. During Tony Rundle
Tony Rundle
Anthony Maxwell Rundle AO was the Premier of the Australian State of Tasmania from 18 March 1996 to 14 September 1998. He succeeded Ray Groom and was succeeded himself by Jim Bacon. He is a Liberal who held the seat of Braddon between 1986 and 2002. A former journalist, he is married to...
's government the Legislative Council finally allowed the Parliamentary Reform Bill 1998 passage, reducing the number of seats in the chamber from 19 to 15, and redistributing all seats through an independent Distribution Tribunal, abolishing a previous rural bias which had led to unequal seats. However, the seats were not named after their geographic location, often using land district or county
Cadastral divisions of Tasmania
The Lands administrative divisions of Tasmania refer to the division of Tasmania into land districts and parishes for cadastral purposes, which are part of the lands administrative divisions of Australia...
names unfamiliar to most residents, so considerable confusion for voters ensued in determining which seat they were to vote within.
Current distribution of seats
| Party | Seats held | Current Legislative Council | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia... |
2 | ||||||||||||
| Liberal Party of Australia Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office... |
1 | ||||||||||||
| Independents Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
12 | ||||||||||||
See also
- Parliaments of the Australian states and territoriesParliaments of the Australian states and territoriesThe Parliaments of the Australian states and territories are legislative bodies within the federal framework of the Commonwealth of Australia. Before the formation of the Commonwealth in 1901, the six Australian colonies were self-governing, with parliaments which had come into existence at various...
- List of members of the Tasmanian Legislative CouncilMembers of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, 2010–2014This is a list of members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 2010 to 2014. Terms of the Legislative Council do not coincide with Legislative Assembly elections, with members serving six-year terms, and two or three members facing re-election every year...
- List of Legislative Council divisionsTasmanian Legislative Council electoral divisionsThe Tasmanian Legislative Council has fifteen single member constituencies.Members of the Legislative Council serve for a six year term. An election is called one year for two of the fifteen divisions, the next year an election is called in three divisions, this is done on a rotating basis.Until...