ELECTORAL ANOMALIES
[To the Editor of Tan SrEerAToa.]
Sra,—I hope your readers will forgive me (and you) if you allow me a few lines to illustrate by a recent example the injustice which results from an imperfect electoral system.
The following are the figures of the recent Senatorial elections in Australia :
Party. Votes. Seats.
Government .. 1,744,144 .. 18 Labour .. .. 1,356,184 .. 0 Others • • • • .. 187,845 .. 0
At these elections (which are normally held at triennial intervals) one half of the Senate was elected. The other half was elected in 1931, when the figures were :
Votes. Seats.
1,737,611 15 1,281,051 • • 3 116,661 0
The three Labour seats on that occasion were the result of a majority of about 11,000 on a total poll of some 425,000 votes in Queensland.
So, in the Senate as a whole, rather less than 3,500,000 voters are represented by 33 members, and rather more than 2,500,000 voters by 3 members. The system in force is known as " preferential voting " (which is the same thing as the " alternative vote," favoured by the Labour Party in this country) combined with a " block vote " in each State ; the result is to secure that all three seats in each State go to the same party or combination of parties. Thus the United Australia and the United Country parties combined successfully to exclude Labour.
As a contrast let me quote a letter from Tasmania where P.R. is in force ; the correspondent is calling attention to one of the results of P.R. in that country which is not a mere matter of figures ; indeed to understand the call for P.R. as simply a call for more mathematical accuracy is wholly to misconceive the aims of its supporters : " One great benefit of P.R. in actual practice that does not seem to be much stressed, is that no matter which Party gets in power, the extreme element in that Party is not able to run amok. In other words, P.R. ensures that the level-headed part of the community, which in a British country is always in a big majority, is in control of whatever House is elected. The character of the elected House is always such that the wild extremists are kept in check: This is true of both the extreme Lefts and the extreme Rights. The Governments of Tasmania have, over a long period, been the most level-headed and best working Parlia- ments in Australia, and I feel convinced that this is largely due to P.R."
But, let me add, that if there is really in a country—British or otherwise—a majority which is not " level-headed," P.R. will not save that majority from itself.—Yours, &c.,
Party. Government Labour Others
JOHN FISCHER WILLIAM'S.
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