Angst and celebration as Upper House one vote, one value overhaul passed

Albany will not be represented by six South West MPs in WA’s Upper House after the next election after the WA Government passed its “historic” one-vote, one-value reforms on Wednesday. Labor used its massive majority in the Legislative Council to pass the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Equality) Bill 2021 in the early hours of Wednesday morning without any amendments. The six existing Legislative Council regions — half of which are in the country — will be replaced with a single “whole-of-State” electorate, from which all 37 MPs will be elected in future. As part of the existing South West Upper House electorate, Albany is represented by Labor’s Sally Talbot, Alannah MacTiernan and Jackie Jarvis, the Liberals’ Steve Thomas, Nationals WA’s James Hayward and Legalise Cannabis WA Party’s Sophia Moermond. The overhaul spells an end to the malapportionment by which votes cast in regional WA could be worth up to six times those in the city. Group voting tickets, which allow for preference harvesting, will also be abolished. During the State election campaign, Premier Mark McGowan repeatedly said Legislative Council electoral reform was “not on our agenda”, only to make it a priority after Labor won control of both houses of Parliament. In September, a Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform headed by former WA governor Malcolm McCusker tabled its review into how “electoral equality” could be achieved for all citizens voting for the Legislative Council. The Electoral Equality Bill 2021 was introduced the next day. Premier Mark McGowan on Wednesday said passing the laws was a “historic” moment for WA delivering a “fair voting system”. “One person’s vote should not be worth more than another’s just because they live in a different part of the State,” he said. “Political candidates should not be elected by engaging in the shadowy practice of preference harvesting. “The era of unfair voting is over — electoral equality is here.” Opposition leader Mia Davies called the reforms disgraceful and slammed the McGowan Government for ramming the law through Parliament and putting a “gag order on debate”. “Worse still, the Premier made this his focus instead of addressing greater issues, like our collapsing health system, Statewide housing crisis, and worsening skilled worker shortage,” she said. “This is a dark day for regional WA — their voices have been silenced, they have been refused a seat at the decision-making table, and their representation has been killed off.” South West Liberal MLC Steve Thomas said Labor’s “attack on regional WA” would not be forgotten. “The creation, maintenance and performance of local assets like roads, hospitals and schools all rely on strong regional representation by people who understand the local issues,” he said. “Labor has turned their back on regional communities by removing the opportunity for local people who truly understand local issues to be voted in.” Electoral Affairs Minister John Quigley said a whole-of-State electorate was “not a reduction in political representation but in fact the opposite”. “The new, fair system will allow a diverse range of aspiring political representatives to vie for a realistic chance at election. One Statewide electorate puts the level and range of diversity largely into the hands of the electors,” he said.