Do The House Of Representatives And The Senate Accurately Reflect The Will Of The People?
Do the voting systems for the House of Representatives and the Senate accurately reflect the will of the people?
Introduction
The purpose of an electoral system is to translate the will of the electorate, as expressed through the ballot box into members of a legislative body. Australia is one of the oldest continuous democracies in the world, the Commonwealth of Australia was created in 1901 when the former British colonies, now the six states agreed to federate. The Australian colonies had inherited an electoral tradition from Britan that included limited franchise and public and plural voting. In order to implement and underpin the electoral system, Victoria introduced the secret ballot in 1855, which became known throughout the world …show more content…
Section 41 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act stated that only those who had the right to vote in their state, then had the right to vote in Commonwealth elections (Australia Electoral Commission 2011). The Act was interpreted very narrowly to Aboriginal people. According to the Act, only those Aboriginal people whose names were already on the electoral roll for their state elections would be able to vote in the Commonwealth elections. In 1962, Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that indigenous people should have the right to enrol and vote at Federal elections, including Northern Territory elections (Australia Electoral Commissiion 2011). However, the enrolment was not compulsory, and a low level of education for Aboriginals often allows for inadequacies and therefore they do not take their voting right seriously. In addition, The Northern Territory is not a state, so their votes have not the same weight as the votes from the residents of the states. Inequalities from various respects susggest that the voting system under-represents the will of Aboriginals in the
Introduction
The purpose of an electoral system is to translate the will of the electorate, as expressed through the ballot box into members of a legislative body. Australia is one of the oldest continuous democracies in the world, the Commonwealth of Australia was created in 1901 when the former British colonies, now the six states agreed to federate. The Australian colonies had inherited an electoral tradition from Britan that included limited franchise and public and plural voting. In order to implement and underpin the electoral system, Victoria introduced the secret ballot in 1855, which became known throughout the world …show more content…
Section 41 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act stated that only those who had the right to vote in their state, then had the right to vote in Commonwealth elections (Australia Electoral Commission 2011). The Act was interpreted very narrowly to Aboriginal people. According to the Act, only those Aboriginal people whose names were already on the electoral roll for their state elections would be able to vote in the Commonwealth elections. In 1962, Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that indigenous people should have the right to enrol and vote at Federal elections, including Northern Territory elections (Australia Electoral Commissiion 2011). However, the enrolment was not compulsory, and a low level of education for Aboriginals often allows for inadequacies and therefore they do not take their voting right seriously. In addition, The Northern Territory is not a state, so their votes have not the same weight as the votes from the residents of the states. Inequalities from various respects susggest that the voting system under-represents the will of Aboriginals in the