Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

Updated on Nov 25, 2023

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The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was an Act of the Australian Parliament passed in 1918 which replaced the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 which had defined who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The 1902 Act set uniform national franchise criteria, establishing the voting age at 21 years and women's suffrage at the national level, also a right to stand for election to the Parliament. That Act also disqualified from voting a number of categories of people, including Indigenous peoples from Australian, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (except New Zealand Maori), even if citizens of the British Empire. A plurality voting system ("first-past-the-post") was established. The 1902 Act also made it clear that no person could vote more than once at each election. The 1902 Act was amended in 1906 to allow postal voting. In 1908, a permanent electoral roll was established and in 1911 it became compulsory for eligible voters to enroll. Compulsory enrollment led to a large increase in voter turnout, even though voting was still voluntary.^[1] From 1912, elections have been held on Saturdays.

The 1918 Act was introduced by the Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes and is still the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918.

Provisions

The 1918 Act replaced first-past-the-post voting with instant-runoff voting ("preferential voting") for the House and the Senate. (Preferential voting had been pioneered by Queensland in 1892.) The voting system was changed by the anti-Labor Hughes after the 1918 Swan by-election, which saw the Labor candidate win with 34% of the vote due to a split in the anti-Labor vote between the Nationalist and Country Party candidates, with 29.6% and 31.4% respectively.

1924 amendment

Compulsory voting at federal elections was introduced in 1924, as a condition of the Country Party agreeing to form an alliance with the then minority Nationalist Party.

1949 amendments

The Chifley Government amended the Electoral Act in 1949, in time for the 1949 federal election:

The number of senators was increased from 36 to 60 (10 from each State), an increase of 24, and the number of members of the House of Representatives from 74 to 121, an increase of 47.

The single transferable vote under a proportional voting system for the Senate was also introduced.

Though in 1949 Australian nationality law was also amended to create an Australian nationality, the criteria for the franchise remained that of being a British subject.

1962 amendments

In 1962, the Menzies Government extended the franchise to Indigenous Australians at federal elections, though enrolment was voluntary.

1973 and 1974 amendments

The qualifying voting age was lowered by the Whitlam Government in 1973 from 21 to 18 years, and the ACT and Northern Territory became entitled to representation in both Houses for the first time in 1974.

1984 amendments

The Hawke Government made a number of significant changes to the Electoral Act in 1984:

An independent Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) was established to administer the federal electoral system.

The number of senators was increased from 64 to 76 (12 from each State and two from each Territory), an increase of 12, and the number of members of the House of Representatives was increased from 125 to 148, an increase of 23.

The group voting ticket voting system (the original "above-the-line" voting) was introduced.

The registration of political parties was introduced to permit the printing of party names on ballot papers.

Public funding of election campaigns and disclosure of political donations and electoral expenditure was introduced.

The compulsory enrolment and voting requirement was extended to cover Indigenous Australians.

The franchise qualification was changed to Australian citizenship, though British subjects on the roll immediately before 26 January 1984 retained enrolment and voting rights.

The grace period after an election is called before the electoral rolls are closed was extended to seven days and the time that polling places closed was changed from 8pm to 6pm.

Section 282 was added, requiring the AEC to conduct a recount following a dissolution under section 57 of the Constitution as if only the elected candidates had been named on the ballot papers, and only half the number were to be elected. The constitution requires the Senate to allocate long and short term senate seats, and this provides one way of determining which senators are allocated which terms. As of 2016, this method had not yet been applied, despite two bipartisan senate resolutions in favour of using it.

2016 amendments

In 2016 the registered preference part of the Senate group ticket voting system was abolished, to avoid undue influence of preference deals experienced in 2013, and especially cascading preference deals (which are unlikely to be obvious to most voters).

References

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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