Condorcet methods
103-486: The Bjelkemander was the term given to a system of malapportionment in the Australian state of Queensland in the 1970s and 1980s. Under the system, electorates were allocated to zones such as rural or metropolitan and electoral boundaries drawn so that rural electorates had about half as many voters each as metropolitan ones. The Country Party (later National Party), a rural-based party led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen ,
206-706: A confidence and supply agreement would not be enough to keep the Nationalists in office. However, Country Party leader Earle Page had never trusted the Nationalist Prime Minister, Billy Hughes . Indeed, the Country Party had been formed in part due to discontent with Hughes' rural policy. Page not only let it be known that he would not serve under Hughes, but demanded Hughes' resignation before he would even consider coalition talks. Hughes resigned, and Page then entered negotiations with
309-631: A Coalition under the leadership of Jeff Kennett . Although the Liberals won enough seats to govern alone, Kennett retained the Nationals in his government. When Peter Ryan became leader of the Nationals shortly after the Kennett government's 1999 election defeat, he terminated the Coalition agreement and led the Nationals into the 2002 and 2006 elections separately from the Liberals. However,
412-648: A century in which the government won a seat off the opposition in a by-election. In the 2023 New South Wales state election , the top 10 electorates in terms of Chinese ancestry all saw big swings to Labor. However, the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party managed to hold many state seats with large Chinese communities (such as the Sydney seats of Drummoyne , Epping , Holsworthy , Lane Cove , Miranda , Oatley and Ryde ). A Coalition between
515-419: A coalition opposition following their defeat in 1972 , but went into the 1974 federal election as a Coalition. The Coalition remained together upon entering opposition in 1983 federal election . The Coalition suffered another break, related to the " Joh for Canberra " campaign, from April to August 1987, the rift healing after the 1987 federal election . The solidity of the Coalition is so strong that when
618-576: A few months before losing a confidence motion and being replaced by the Labor Party in the form of the Curtin government . After the demise of the Fadden government, the Coalition voted to continue on under his leadership in opposition. Menzies had opposed this, and resigned as UAP leader, to be replaced by the ageing Billy Hughes . Up until the 1943 election , the Coalition effectively operated as
721-559: A full Coalition government following the 1934 federal election . After the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in April 1939, Page was appointed as his successor on an interim basis, pending the new election of a new UAP leader . Despite Page's misgivings, the UAP elected Robert Menzies – who was known to dislike the Country Party. Page subsequently made a vitriolic speech in parliament attacking Menzies's character, and withdrew his party from
824-722: A local issue exists, those parties or candidates distancing themselves from a broad swathe of electoral districts, such as marginal secessionists , or using a marginal minority language , may find themselves without representation. The vast majority of voters elect representatives of their philosophies. However, unlike district systems (or the hybrid models) no one elects a representative that represents them, or their specific region, and voters might reduce personal contact with their representatives. Apportionment methods for party-list proportional representation include: These apportionment methods can be categorized into largest remainder methods and highest averages methods . Malapportionment
927-432: A minority over equality of individuals. For example, in a federation , each member unit may have the same representation regardless of its population. The effect might not be just a vague empowerment of some voters but a systematic bias to the nation's government. Many instances worldwide arise in which large, sparsely populated rural regions are given equal representation to densely packed urban areas. As an example, in
1030-515: A non-tertiary qualification or no educational qualification. Homeowners vote more for the Coalition than any other party, and the State of Queensland is its biggest electorate by two-party-preferred vote percentage (though by primary vote, Tasmania is the state with the highest Coalition vote). The Coalition also gathers significant support from Australians in regional, rural and remote areas, whilst lacking significant support in most parts of
1133-401: A representative in the governing body. Moreover, most such systems impose a threshold that a party must reach (for example, some percentage of the total vote) to qualify to obtain representatives in the body which eliminates extreme parties, to make the governing body as orderly in non-proportionate systems. With the minimum votes threshold version, if a subtype of single-issue politics based on
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#17327802278571236-406: A representative's votes (on proposed laws and measures etc.) according to the number of their constituents could make representation more exact, giving each representative exactly one vote avoids complexity in governance. Over time, populations migrate and change in number. Governing bodies, however, usually exist for a defined term of office. While parliamentary systems provide for dissolution of
1339-464: A result of variations on the preferential voting system used in every state and territory, the Coalition has been able to thrive, wherever both its member parties have both been active. The preferential voting system has allowed the Liberal and National parties to compete and co-operate at the same time. By contrast, a variation of the preferential system known as optional preferential voting has proven
1442-409: A result, both parties competed against each other and fought elections separately from 1952 to 1989. The presence of John McEwen , a Victorian, as number-two man in the federal government from 1958 to 1971 (including a brief stint as interim Prime Minister) did little to change this. The Liberals and Nationals reached a Coalition agreement in 1990. They fought and won the 1992 and 1996 elections as
1545-458: A significant handicap to coalition co-operation in Queensland and New South Wales , because significant numbers of voters do not express all useful preferences. Due to a disciplined coalition between the parties and their predecessors being in existence for almost 100 years with only a few brief cessations within a parliamentary system, most commentators and the general public often refer to
1648-410: A single unit, with separate party meetings being extremely rare. However, the landslide defeat it suffered – under Fadden as opposition leader – led to an immediate change in strategy. The UAP voted to break off its ties with the Country Party in opposition, and re-elected Menzies as its leader. This is the most recent occasion on which the senior partner in the Coalition has opted to withdraw. The UAP
1751-520: A specialist party looking after the needs of rural people is in decline." Nationals leader Ian Sinclair publicly rejected calls for a merger, citing the incompatibility of the National Party's conservatism and the "small-l liberal" wing of the Liberal Party. In July 1989, Senator Fred Chaney , the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, stated his tentative support for a merger, but noted that it could not be led by politicians and should come from
1854-525: A system of malapportionment from the previous Labor Party government. After becoming premier, Nicklin reworked that set-up to benefit the Country and Liberal parties instead. The Labor-leaning provincial cities were split off from their hinterlands, in which new Country Party seats were created. At the same time, more Liberal seats were created in the Brisbane area. While fairer than Labor's arrangement, it
1957-557: Is called reactive malapportionment, which can come about in three ways. The first is the impact of abstentions, in which a lower turnout in a constituency means fewer votes are needed to win there. This can be seen in the UK through the Labour Party's strength in inner city areas where turnout is lowest. The second is the impact of minor parties, which works in a similar way; more votes going to smaller parties means fewer votes are needed for
2060-404: Is led by John Pesutto and the National Party by Peter Walsh . The Country Party was the stronger coalition partner on multiple occasions from the 1920s through to the 1950s, and Country leaders served as Premier of Victoria on five separate occasions. However, the relationship between the two parties was somewhat strained for most of the second half of the 20th century. In 1948, the coalition
2163-430: Is led by Peter Dutton , who succeeded Scott Morrison after the 2022 federal election . The two parties in the Coalition have different geographical voter bases , with the Liberals – the larger party – drawing most of their vote from urban areas and the Nationals operating almost exclusively in rural and regional areas. They occupy a broadly similar place on the right of the political spectrum . The partnership between
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#17327802278572266-515: Is not universal, for reasons including the following: A perfectly apportioned governing body would assist but does not ensure good representation; voters who did not vote for their district's winner might have no representative who is disposed to voice their opinion in the governing body. Conversely, a representative in the governing body may voice the opinions held by a voter who is not actually their constituent, though representatives usually seek to serve their own constituents first and will only voice
2369-625: Is that elections should give each vote an equal weight . This is both intuitive and stated in laws such as the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (the Equal Protection Clause ). Fundamentally, the representation of a population in the thousands or millions by a reasonable size, thus accountable governing body involves arithmetic that will not be exact. Although weighing
2472-450: Is the creation of electoral districts with divergent ratios of voters to representatives. For example, if one single-member district has 10,000 voters and another has 100,000 voters, voters in the former district have ten times the influence, per person, over the governing body. The malapportionment can be measured by seats-to-votes ratio . Malapportionment may be deliberate, for reasons such as biasing representation toward geographic areas or
2575-490: Is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions , such as states or parties, entitled to representation . This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionment. The page apportionment by country describes the specific practices used around the world. The page Mathematics of apportionment describes mathematical formulations and properties of apportionment rules. The simplest and most universal principle
2678-410: The 1922 federal election . The Liberals and Nationals maintain separate organisational wings and separate parliamentary parties , but co-operate in various ways determined by a mixture of formal agreements and informal conventions. There is a single Coalition frontbench , both in government and in opposition , with each party receiving a proportionate number of positions. By convention, the leader of
2781-403: The 1940 federal election , the Coalition was plunged into minority government for the first time in its history. Archie Cameron was an immediate victim of the election result, being replaced by Arthur Fadden and later defecting to the UAP. Menzies increasingly struggled to balance his management of Australia's war effort with domestic concerns, and his party began to rebel against him. However,
2884-546: The 1947 state election , although the Coalition did not form government during this period. Western Australia has never had a premier from the Country/National Party. In May 1949, the Liberal and Country League was formed to attempt to merge Country Party (then called County Democratic League or CDL) and Liberal Party together. This did not eventuate and the CDL did not join the new party. The National Party
2987-499: The 2010 federal election , all eight seats which resulted in a two-candidate-preferred result were re-counted to also express a statistical-only "traditional" two-party-preferred result. As of 2022, the biggest voting blocs of the Coalition are men , the Greatest Generation (people born between 1901–1927), the middle class (as opposed to the working class ), who make between A$ 45,001– A$ 80,000 per year, and have
3090-412: The 2011 state election in a massive swing under Barry O'Farrell , the 2015 election with a reduced majority under Mike Baird , and the 2019 election under Gladys Berejiklian. The Coalition led by Dominic Perrottet lost the 2023 state election and is in opposition since. New South Wales is the only state where the non-Labor Coalition has never broken, and yet has also never merged. This remained
3193-525: The Australian Labor Party (ALP), while exchanging preferences in elections. Such contests would weaken their prospects under first-past-the-post voting . From time to time, friction is caused by the fact that the Liberal and National candidates are campaigning against each other, without long-term damage to the relationship. Indeed, the whole point of introducing preferential voting was to allow safe spoiler-free, three-cornered contests. It
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3296-703: The Centre Party , which held the balance of power in that year's state election . It threw its support to the Liberals, and Lyons – the Centre Party's lone MHA – became Deputy Premier. The Liberal–Centre alliance fell apart in 1972, forcing an early election . In 1975, what remained of the Centre Party became the Tasmanian chapter of what was by now the National Country Party before fading away completely. A Tasmanian National Party branch
3399-526: The House of Representatives . A merger of the Liberals and Nationals has been suggested on a number of occasions, but has never become a serious proposition. The relationship between the two parties varies at state and territory level. The situation in New South Wales and Victoria broadly mirrors that at federal level, while in Western Australia the parties are much more independent of each other. In
3502-663: The Liberal (and predecessors) and National parties has existed without interruption in New South Wales since 1927. Predecessors of the NSW Liberal Party, including the UAP, Nationalist Party and the Democratic Party , maintained a coalition with the Country Party (old name of National Party). The Liberal Party is led by Mark Speakman and the National Party by Dugald Saunders . The Coalition won
3605-491: The Liberal National Party (LNP), under the leadership of former National Lawrence Springborg . Although it is dominated by former Nationals, it has full voting rights within the Liberal Party and observer status within the National Party. Springborg stood down in 2009, and was succeeded by former Liberal John-Paul Langbroek . The LNP won an overwhelming majority government in the 2012 state election under
3708-649: The Northern Territory the territorial parties merged in 1974 to form the Country Liberal Party (CLP), and in 2008 the Queensland state-level parties merged, forming the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP). LNP and CLP members elected to federal parliament do not form separate parliamentary parties, joining either the Liberals or Nationals. In South Australia , Tasmania and the ACT,
3811-565: The United Australia Party , fought the 1931 federal election with a joint Senate ticket, though they ran separate House tickets. The UAP came up only four seats short of a majority in its own right. The Emergency Committee of South Australia , which stood for the UAP and Country Party in South Australia, joined the UAP party room , giving the UAP enough support to rule alone. However, the parties once again joined in
3914-700: The United States , the Republican Party benefits from institutional advantages to rural states with low populations, such that the Senate and the Presidency may reflect results counter to the total popular vote. Unequal representation can be measured in the following ways: Even when electoral districts have similar populations, legislators may draw the boundaries to pursue private agendas; see Gerrymandering . Another form of malapportionment
4017-445: The electoral threshold are considered for apportionment. In this system, voters do not vote for a person to represent their geographic district, but for a political party that aligns with the voter's philosophy. Each party names a number of representatives based on the number of votes it receives nationally. This system tallies (agglomerates) more of the voters' preferences. As in other systems parties with very few voters do not earn
4120-587: The ALP that previously belonged to the Coalition will sit with the previous member's party. An amicable division of seats was decided upon for new seats or seats that have never been won by the Coalition. In practice, all LNP MPs from Brisbane and most LNP MPs from the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast sit with the Liberals, while those from rural seats usually sit with the Nationals. The state branch of
4223-549: The ALP's rural supporters (farm workers, miners etc.) the rural-based Country Party was able to take the most advantage from Labor's infighting. In 1971, Bjelke-Petersen, who had become Premier in 1968, proposed to refine the malapportionment to favour his party at the expense of his Coalition partners, the Liberal Party , as well as Labor. Electoral demographics had changed since 1949 and Labor now drew most of its support from urban concentrations of workers. Labor opposed
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4326-473: The Coalition agreement was renewed in 2008 and the Victorian Liberal and National parties went into the 2010 election as a Coalition. The Coalition ended up winning the 2010 election with a one-seat margin under the leadership of Ted Baillieu , who resigned in 2013 and was succeeded by Denis Napthine . The Coalition lost power at the 2014 election . The Coalition arrangement was maintained while
4429-411: The Coalition as if it were a single party. Polling and electoral results contain a two-party-preferred (TPP) vote which is based on Labor and the Coalition. The Australian Electoral Commission has distinguished between "traditional" (Coalition/Labor) two-party-preferred (TPP/2PP) contests, and "non-traditional" ( Independent , Greens , Liberal vs National) two-candidate-preferred (TCP/2CP) contests. At
4532-405: The Coalition lost to the Labor Party and returned to opposition. In March 1973, former Prime Minister William McMahon publicly announced his support for a merger. McMahon reiterated his view after Labor won the 1974 election , and Billy Snedden , his successor as leader of the Liberal Party, also stated that he favoured a merger. During the 1980s, former Nationals MP Peter Nixon reviewed
4635-583: The Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis was 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats. This resulted in the Liberal Party losing many federal seats with large Chinese communities in 2022 to Labor (losing Bennelong and Reid in Sydney and Chisholm in Melbourne to Labor and Kooyong in Melbourne to a teal independent ), as well as losing Aston in 2023 , which was the first time in over
4738-399: The Coalition over Labor, due to a perception that Liberal Party was more business-oriented than Labor. However, this has declined in recent years. In the 2022 Australian federal election , electorates with a higher concentration of Chinese-Australian voters experienced larger swings against the Coalition compared to other electorates; in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the swing against
4841-524: The Country Party merged with the Liberal Federation , the state branch of the UAP, in 1932 to form the Liberal and Country League . It later became the state division of the Liberal Party when the latter was formed in 1945. A separate Country Party (later Nationals SA ) was revived in 1963, though the main non-Labor party in South Australia continued to use the LCL name until it was also renamed to
4944-551: The Country Party (now renamed the National Party ) from its coalition partner. The putative reasons given for reducing the number of voters in remote and rural electorates have some validity: in 1949, the electorate of Gregory was larger in area than Great Britain, but contained fewer than 6000 voters. In addition, it contained vast areas of desert and the few communities in the electorate were poorly served by road and rail links. Other electorates were almost as large: in fact,
5047-404: The Labor Party, further exacerbating the effect of the "Bjelkemander". The malapportionment favouring country areas helped Labor in 1949 onwards and the Country Party from 1957. The 1972 redistribution introduced a gerrymander effect favouring the Country Party, by which boundaries were drawn to consolidate Labor-voting populations and diversify Country supporters. A seat won with 50.1% of the vote
5150-412: The Labor Party, we aren't in coalition with the Liberals, we are definitely not in coalition with anyone. We stand alone in South Australia as an independent party." Flinders University political scientist Haydon Manning disagreed, saying that it is "churlish to describe the government as anything but a coalition". The party did not run candidates at the 2010 federal election , but ran one candidate in
5253-546: The Liberal Party in 1974. The revived SA Nationals have never been successful in South Australia, due to the state's highly centralised population (some three-quarters of the population lives in Adelaide ) and the Liberals' strong support in rural areas that would tilt National in most of the rest of Australia. The party's current incarnation has only elected two representatives: Peter Blacker from 1973 to 1993, and Karlene Maywald from 1997 to 2010. From 2004 to 2010, Maywald
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#17327802278575356-458: The Liberal Party serves as the overall leader, serving as prime minister when the Coalition is in government and leader of the opposition when the Coalition is in opposition. The leader of the National Party becomes the deputy prime minister during periods of Coalition government. The two parties co-operate on their federal election campaigns, run joint Senate tickets in most states, and generally avoid running candidates against each other in
5459-404: The Liberals (22.2%) or Labor (46.7%). But due to the Country Party's heavy concentration of support in the rural and remote zones, it won 26 seats. Combined with the Liberals' 21 seats, this gave the Coalition 47 seats to Labor's 33, consigning Labor to opposition even though it won far more actual votes. In 1977 another redistribution eliminated some Liberal seats, reducing the internal threat to
5562-461: The Liberals as much, if not more, than the Labor Party. As a party drawing its votes mainly from the Brisbane area, the Liberals were regarded by Bjelke-Petersen as "small-l-liberal" and averse to rural interests. When he became premier in 1968, the Liberals held only slightly fewer seats than the Country Party, providing further incentive for the Country Party to increase its parliamentary numbers at
5665-427: The Liberals won parliamentary majorities in their own right in the 1975 , 1977 and 1996 federal elections , the Coalition was retained. In the 2007 federal election , the Coalition lost to the Labor Party and went into opposition. The Coalition regained office in the 2013 federal election as a majority government. In October 2018, the Coalition went into minority government for the second time in its history, when
5768-419: The National Party, has ranked second in nearly all non-Labor governments, a status formalised in 1967 when the post of Deputy Prime Minister was formally created to denote Country leader John McEwen 's status as the number-two man in the government. The Nationalist–Country Coalition was reelected twice, and continued in office until its defeat in 1929 . The Country Party and the Nationalists' successor party,
5871-490: The Nationals have no sitting MPs and little or no organisational presence. The origins of the Coalition date back to the 1922 federal election , when the Nationalist Party , the main middle-class non-Labor party of the time, lost the absolute majority it had held since its formation in 1917. The Nationalists could only stay in office with the support of the two-year-old Country Party . It soon became apparent that
5974-454: The Nationals, while the LNP's four other senators sit with the Liberals. The highest-profile LNP MP of the 2010s was former federal Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss . The LNP has an informal agreement with its federal counterparts as to which party room in which LNP members will sit. Incumbent MPs retain their previous federal affiliations, whereas members who win seats from
6077-641: The Nationals. However, Barnett would have likely had to keep the Nationals in his government in any event. According to the ABC's Antony Green , the rural weighting in the Legislative Council all but forces the WA Liberals to depend on National support even when the Liberals have enough support to govern alone. The Barnett government was heavily defeated at the 2017 state election , and the two parties went their separate ways with Liberal Party being
6180-537: The UAP was bereft of leadership despite having been in power for a decade. With this in mind, in August 1941 the Coalition collectively decided that Fadden and Menzies should swap positions, with Menzies becoming Minister for Defence Co-ordination and Fadden becoming prime minister. It was the first and only occasion on which the Coalition was led by the leader of the junior party. However, the Fadden government only lasted
6283-434: The body in reaction to political events, no system tries to make real-time adjustments (during one term of office) to reflect demographic changes. Instead, any redistricting takes effect at the next scheduled election or next scheduled census . In some representative assemblies, each member represents a geographic district. Equal representation requires that districts comprise the same number of residents or voters. But this
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#17327802278576386-595: The capital cities. However, there are regions of capital cities that do still vote for the Coalition; such as the Hills District and Sutherland and most of the Eastern Suburbs and Northern Suburbs of Sydney; some areas of Melbourne 's east and northeast; many areas of Brisbane and Perth ; and the southern part of Darwin . The Coalition has below-average support among Indian and Muslim voters. Historically, Chinese Australians have voted for
6489-406: The case even in 2011, when the Liberals won a majority in their own right but still retained the Coalition. On 10 September 2020, the Nationals threatened to move to the crossbench over a dispute regarding koala protection laws, but the issue was resolved the next day and the Nationals remained in the Coalition. Due to Brisbane having a much smaller share of Queensland 's population compared to
6592-522: The coalition – the most recent occasion on which the coalition has been broken while in government. However, a number of Page's colleagues disagreed with his stance, and he resigned as leader in September 1939. He was replaced by Archie Cameron , and after months of negotiations the coalition was revived in March 1940, with five Country MPs joining the second Menzies ministry . After losing eight seats at
6695-529: The disparity in electorate sizes had reduced, with Pine Rivers (16758 voters) and Gregory (6723) marking the extremes. However, the effect was that Bjelke-Petersen was retained as Premier of the state on just 20% of the primary vote. The following table shows the figures for the 1972 election : The Labor Party won 33 seats, the largest of any single party; however, since the National/Liberal Coalition had won 47 seats between them, Labor
6798-584: The expense of the Liberals. From 1910 to 1949, Queensland had a "one person, one vote, one value" electoral system, with a maximum variation of 30% from the Statewide average quota. But in 1949 the Labor Party conducted a revision which varied the number of voters in each electorate according to their size and distance from Brisbane , the state capital in the far south-east of the huge state. Although difficulties in transport and communication were given as
6901-430: The floor to join the Nationals. The Nationals then governed in their own right until 1989 . The Coalition was renewed in 1991, and won power under Rob Borbidge from 1996 to 1998 . The Queensland Liberals and Nationals had contested separately for the Senate in federal elections until the 2007 election , when they ran a join Senate ticket for the first time in 30 years. In 2008, the two parties agreed to merge, forming
7004-401: The four electorates of Gregory, Cook, Flinders and Mount Isa together comprised nearly two-thirds of Queensland's entire landmass. The difficulties of keeping in touch with the population over such enormous and diverse regions were cited by Labor in 1949, and the Country Party in 1971, as reasons for malapportionment. At the 1956 election, the change from the previous one vote-one value system
7107-646: The grassroots. In the wake of their 2007 federal election loss, there was again talk of a merger in 2007 and 2008, as a result of a shrinking National Party vote. It was argued that the decline in the National vote is linked to a declining rural population, and National Party policies have become increasingly similar to those of the Liberal Party. However no merger took place outside of Queensland. Coalition arrangements are facilitated by Australia's preferential voting systems which enable Liberals and Nationals to compete locally in " three-cornered-contests ", with
7210-416: The interests of an outside group of voters if it pertains to their district as well or is of national importance. The representative has the power, and in many theories or jurisdictions the duty, to represent the whole cohort of people from their district. For party-list proportional representation elections the number of seats for a political party is determined by the number of votes. Only parties crossing
7313-456: The leadership of former Liberal Campbell Newman , who had taken over from Langbroek a year earlier. However, it lost power in 2015 and remained in opposition for nearly a decade, returning to power in 2024. At the federal level, 15 LNP MPs sit with the Liberals, including federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton ; six sit with the Nationals, including federal Nationals leader David Littleproud . LNP Senators Matt Canavan Susan McDonald sit with
7416-491: The new Nationalist leader, Stanley Bruce . The Country Party's terms were unusually stiff for a prospective junior partner in a Westminster system (and especially so for a relatively new party) – five seats in an 11-member cabinet, as well as the Treasurer 's post and second rank in the ministry for Page. Nonetheless, Bruce agreed rather than force a new election. Since then, the leader of the Country Party, which evolved into
7519-419: The other state capitals, Queensland is the only state in which the Nationals were consistently the stronger non-Labor party. The Nationals were the senior partner in the non-Labor Coalition from 1925 until the Coalition was broken in 1983. At an election held two months later , the Nationals under Joh Bjelke-Petersen came up one seat short of a majority, but later gained a majority when two Liberal MLAs crossed
7622-410: The party and "concluded it should seriously consider amalgamating with the Liberals". Former Nationals leader Doug Anthony wrote not long afterward, "Any objective and rational National Party member who read this report would have to accept that amalgamation was the only realistic course. Regrettably, there are still too many who don't want to read it and who don't want to face reality, that the role of
7725-399: The reasons to reduce the size of remote and thinly-populated electorates, the effect was to give a huge advantage to the Labor Party, which at that time drew its voting strength from rural areas, a consequence of the party's formation in the outback Queensland town of Barcaldine half a century earlier. The newly elected Country Party MP for Nanango , Joh Bjelke-Petersen , spoke out against
7828-629: The redistribution, saying that it meant that "the majority will be ruled by the minority" and that the Labor government was telling the people "whether you like it or not, we will be the Government". The 1957 ALP split, in which Labor Premier Vince Gair led many MPs out of the party to form the Queensland Labor Party (QLP), undermined the advantage of the malapportionment to Labor. Since the boundaries were drawn to take advantage of
7931-811: The retention of this small degree of rural vote-weighting was not any longer a matter of political controversy in Queensland. In 2017 , the Queensland Legislative Assembly was expanded to 93 seats, and the special loading was removed, with Brisbane electing a majority of the Parliament for the first time since 1949. Malapportionment Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results Apportionment
8034-454: The scheme, as did enough of the Liberals to defeat the bill in Parliament. However, Bjelke-Petersen worked during a four-month Parliamentary recess to redraft the scheme just enough to ensure the support of the Liberals. The new map was used as the basis for the May 1972 election, from which Bjelke-Petersen emerged victorious as Premier despite only receiving 20% of the vote, a smaller percentage than
8137-458: The seat of Barker and two for the Senate at the 2013 election . The Nationals candidate for Barker and several other Coalition figures assured electors that any Nationals elected from South Australia would be part of the Coalition, after comments from the Liberal candidate to the contrary. The National Party has never done well in Tasmania , even though its first leader, William McWilliams ,
8240-413: The seat of Wentworth was won by Independent Kerryn Phelps in the by-election . The by-election was triggered by the resignation of incumbent Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull , who was ousted as Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader during a spill motion earlier in August 2018. The coalition formed majority government again following the 2019 federal election . In the 2022 Australian federal election ,
8343-411: The senior party and the Liberal Party being the junior party in the alliance. Shadow ministerial positions were also held by parliamentary members of both parties. This was similar to the agreements between both parties when they were in government following the 2008 and 2013 elections. Similar to the 2008 and 2013 agreements, the deputy leader of the senior party, Nationals deputy leader Shane Love ,
8446-410: The sole opposition party. In the 2021 election , the Liberal Party ended up winning fewer seats than the National Party, headed by Mia Davies , with the National Party gaining opposition status and Davies becoming the first Nationals opposition leader since 1947 . Following the election, the Liberal Party and Nationals Party entered into a formal alliance to form opposition, with National Party being
8549-445: The statewide average by more than 10%. However, an electorate of over 100,000 square km in area could be counted as having notional extra voters (dubbed "phantom voters" by the media) equal to 2% of its area in square kilometres. Only five of the 89 districts qualified for this special loading, but since these were (a) huge in area, and (b) not solidly National (for instance, Mount Isa and Cook have been regularly held by Labor since 1989),
8652-453: The strict sense, their perceived unfairness had more to do with malapportionment whereby certain areas (normally rural) are simply granted more representation than their population would dictate if electorates contained equal numbers of voters (or population). When the Country (later National) Party first won power in 1957, under Bjelke-Petersen's predecessor, Frank Nicklin , it inherited
8755-432: The two current parties dates back to 1946, shortly after the Liberal Party was formed, and has continued almost uninterrupted since then. The Country Party also maintained similar alliances with the Liberal Party's predecessors, the United Australia Party and Nationalist Party , and similar parties at state level. The first such federal arrangement was formed in 1923, as a solution to the hung parliament that resulted from
8858-513: The two larger parties. This form of malapportionment benefits the largest party in an area where minor parties excel. Finally, the instance of a minor party winning a constituency denies victory to one of the two main parties. Coalition (Australia) Defunct Defunct The Liberal–National Coalition , commonly known simply as the Coalition or the LNP , is an alliance of centre-right to right-wing political parties that forms one of
8961-577: The two major groupings in Australian federal politics . The two partners in the Coalition are the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia (the latter previously known as the Country Party and the National Country Party). Its main opponent is the Australian Labor Party (ALP); the two forces are often regarded as operating in a two-party system . The Coalition was last in government from 2013 to 2022. The group
9064-623: The two parties were in opposition. According to The Age, between November 2018 and November 2021, the Coalition's Legislative Council members voted with the Andrews Government's position 28.9% of the time; of the parties in the Legislative Council, only the Liberal Democratic Party had a lower figure (22.1%). The Country Party was the stronger coalition partner from the 1933 state election to
9167-464: Was a Minister in the Rann Labor government, before losing her seat at the 2010 South Australian state election, thereby informally creating a Labor-National coalition in South Australia. The National Party, at the time, rejected the notion that it was in a coalition with Labor at the state level. State National Party President John Venus told journalists, "We (The Nationals) are not in coalition with
9270-529: Was a Tasmanian. It has elected only two other lower house members. A Tasmania branch of the then-Country Party was formed in 1922 and briefly held the balance of power, but merged with the Nationalists in 1924. It was refounded in 1962, but never gained much ground. In 1969, Liberal MHA Kevin Lyons , the son of former Prime Minister Lyons, pulled together most of the Tasmanian Country Party into
9373-482: Was a government of the Nationalist Party , a forerunner to the modern Liberal Party which introduced the legislation, following Labor's unexpected win at the 1918 Swan by-election where the conservative vote split. Two months later, the Corangamite by-election held under preferential voting caused the initially leading ALP candidate to lose after some lower-placed candidates' preferences had been distributed. As
9476-466: Was able to govern uninhibited during this period due to the 'Bjelkemander' and the absence of an upper house of Parliament. The term is a portmanteau of Joh Bjelke-Petersen's surname with the word " Gerrymander ", where electoral boundaries are redrawn in an unnatural way with the dominant intention of favouring one political party or grouping over its rivals. Although Bjelke-Petersen's 1972 redistributions occasionally had elements of " gerrymandering " in
9579-556: Was achieved by a redistribution in 1991 that took effect at the 1992 election. Acting on the recommendations of the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission (EARC), the Goss Labor Government legislated for a compromise system which allocated 40 of the legislature's 89 seats to the Brisbane area, or 45% of the legislature. Most seats had roughly the same number of voters, while no seat's population could vary from
9682-589: Was briefly revived in the 1990s before it too disappeared, leaving the Liberal Party as the sole major non-Labor party in the state. In 2018, Senator Steve Martin , formerly of the Jacqui Lambie Network , joined the Nationals, becoming the party's first federal member from Tasmania in either chamber in 90 years. However, Martin lost his bid for a new term. A Coalition between the Liberal and National parties exists in Victoria . The Liberal Party
9785-465: Was broken when the Liberal leader and Premier Thomas Hollway sacked Country leader John McDonald as Deputy Premier. In March 1949, the Liberals renamed themselves the Liberal and Country Party as part of an effort to merge the two non-Labor parties in Victoria. However, McDonald saw this as an attempted Liberal takeover of the Country Party, and the Country Party turned the proposed merger down. As
9888-463: Was consigned to Opposition despite winning almost 41,000 more primary votes than the Coalition. Bjelke-Petersen's Country Party had 26 seats to the Liberals' 21; thus, as leader of the senior Coalition partner, Bjelke-Petersen stayed on as Premier. It can also be seen from the above table that the DLP won 7.7% of the vote, but no seats at all: most of these votes flowed through preferential voting away from
9991-486: Was dramatic: the Brisbane-area seat of Mount Gravatt had 26307 voters, while the seat of Charters Towers in far northern Queensland had just 4367, a ratio of six to one. If the number of votes cast per party is divided by the number of seats won, the effect on party representation is underscored. In 1956 the Labor Party needed 7000 votes to win each seat, the Country Party 9900, and the Liberals 23800. By 1972,
10094-471: Was elected as the WA Nationals candidate for the seat of O'Connor at the 2010 federal election . Although some reports initially counted Crook as a National MP, and thus part of the Coalition, Crook sat as a crossbencher . The Liberals won enough seats for a majority in their own right in the 2013 state election , but Barnett had announced before the election that he would retain the coalition with
10197-414: Was folded into the Liberal Party in 1945, with Menzies as leader. In the lead-up to the 1946 federal election , Menzies renewed the Coalition with the Country Party, which was still led by Fadden. They won the 1949 federal election as a Coalition, and stayed in office for a record 23 years. Since 1946, the Coalition has remained intact with two exceptions, both in opposition. The parties decided not to form
10300-417: Was found in the regional centres where Labor populations could be aggregated together and the rural voters of the surrounding districts distributed to electorates where they would be of most use to the Country Party. The resignation of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen in 1987, and the defeat of the National Party by Labor under Wayne Goss in 1989, led to the implementation of more equitable electoral boundaries, which
10403-512: Was in Coalition with the Liberal Party government from 1993 to 2001 (see Hendy Cowan ), but the Coalition was subsequently broken. In 2008, the Liberals under Colin Barnett , the Nationals under Brendon Grylls , and independent John Bowler formed a minority government after the 2008 election . However, it was not characterised as a "traditional coalition", with limited cabinet collective responsibility for National cabinet members. Tony Crook
10506-428: Was just as good in Parliament as one with 100% support. Liberal and especially Labor voters were usually found in identifiable "clumps" within Brisbane and the regional cities, a reflection of the income levels available to workers and the middle class dividing them between desirable and less desirable suburbs. The metropolis of Brisbane was a zone of limited support for Bjelke-Petersen's Country Party, but fertile ground
10609-456: Was still slanted toward the Coalition. Bjelke-Petersen tweaked that system even further after becoming premier, benefiting his own Country Party at the expense of both the Labor and Liberal parties. That meant that in Queensland, unlike at the federal level and in the other states, the Country/National Party was the senior partner in the non-Labor coalition, with the Liberals as junior partner. In fact, Bjelke-Petersen's system discriminated against
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