By Dave Wright
HOBART — The Groom Liberal government is trying to cut the number of members in the House of Assembly from 35 to 30. The effect will be to weaken significantly Tasmania's democratic proportional representation voting system.
The Constitution Amendment Bill is linked to a 40% pay rise for parliamentarians. They currently get about $47,000 per year. The pay rise was voted through parliament 18 to 16 in a late night sitting on November 18. Labor and the Greens voted against the bill.
Labor leader Michael Field said that the pay rise should go before an independent tribunal. The Greens' Gerry Bates has said that parliamentarians should be paid between $55,000 and $60,000 a year due to their long hours and the stress of the job.
The 40% pay claim has sparked public outrage. It follows mass sackings of construction and public sector workers earlier this year.
The government also claimed recently at an Industrial Relations Commission hearing that it did not have the money to allow a pay rise for teachers. It has announced the sacking of 188 state school teachers.
On November 18, more than 600 people attended a rally on the lawns of parliament. The rally was organised by the Tasmanian Trades and Labor Council to oppose the pay rise.
Jim Bacon, secretary of the TTLC, criticised the Liberal government's hypocrisy and told people that they should repay Groom at the ballot box in the 1996 state election. Bacon and the other speakers called upon people to lobby Legislative Council members.
The Constitution Amendment Bill has been delayed by a number of last-minute government amendments. It will be debated on November 30.
The Hare Clarke system has been in operation in Tasmania since 1959. The House of Assembly has five electorates, with seven members being elected from each electorate. In 1989 five Green Independents were elected, thus breaking the two-party monopoly of Labor and Liberal for the first time.
The Hare-Clarke system, as opposed to the preferential voting system which elects federal governments, allows greater representation. Under this system, if a group gets more than 12.5% of the vote in an electorate, it wins a seat in parliament.
Winning a majority of seats in any electorate thus requires more than 50% of the vote, and no party can be elected to government without a majority of the popular vote.
If the parliament is reduced to 30, a quota becomes 14.29%. If Labor and Liberals each get more than 43% in an electorate, they will split its six votes. This will deprive smaller parties of representation. It will also make it possible for a party to get an absolute majority in parliament with only 43% of the popular vote.
There has been significant opposition to this scheme to entrench the Liberals in government. More than 500 people turned up to a public meeting organised by the Greens at Hobart Town Hall on November 19 to protest against the legislation.
One of the speakers, Jim Donovan, a community activist from Local Employment Initiative Scheme at Glenorchy, condemned both the Liberal and Labor indifference to the unemployed. He called for a political alliance similar to that in New Zealand to combat the continued attacks by the Groom government.
Greens MP Christine Milne called on people to lobby the Legislative Council and to write letters to the editor of newspapers.
"We too can play the numbers game. All we need are 10 out of 19 Legislative Councillors to vote against the bill", she said.