26-704: Michael Joseph Kirwan (26 April 1873 – 13 February 1941) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly . Kirwan was born at "Jinbah", Maryborough, Queensland , to parents Michael Kirwan, who was a sugar worker, and his wife Sarah (née Costello), both of whom had originated from County Tipperary , Ireland. He started his education at the local state school in Yengarie before his family moved to Brisbane and he continued his schooling at Petrie Terrace . He started his working career as an apprentice bootmaker in 1884, and in 1907 he joined
52-516: A "modified one vote, one value" system. Under this proposal, subsequently adopted, most electorates consisted of approximately the same number of electors, but with a greater tolerance for fewer electors allowed in a limited number of remote electorates. This plan is still in use today. Presently, 42 seats are contested in Greater Brisbane and 47 in the rest of the state. The youngest person ever elected to Queensland's Legislative Assembly
78-547: A drift of working class population from rural and remote electorates to the cities. By the late 1980s the decline in the political fortunes of the National Party, together with rapid growth in south east Queensland meant that the zonal system was no longer able to guarantee a conservative victory. In addition, in 1988 the Federal Labor Government held four constitutional referendums — one of which
104-554: A fourth zone—a remote zone, comprising seats with even fewer electors. Thus the conservative government was able to isolate Labor support in provincial cities and maximise its own rural power base. On average, the Country Party needed only 7,000 votes to win a seat, compared with 12,800 for a typical Labor seat. The entrenchment of a Coalition government was also caused by socio-economic and demographic changes associated with mechanisation of farms and urbanisation which led to
130-717: Is now configured in a U-shape away from the Speaker's chair with three rows of benches that have their own desks and microphones. As of October 2024, the LNP (Liberal National Party) has 52/93 seats and formed majority government within the unicameral chamber. As of October 2024, the composition of Parliament is: Senate House of Rep. Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Assembly Assembly Full preferential voting Too Many Requests If you report this error to
156-669: The Labour candidate for the seat of Logan , he was easily defeated by the sitting member, James Stodart of the Ministerialist Party by 565 votes to 239. Ten years later, at the 1912 state election , Kirwan was nominated as the Labor candidate for the seat of Brisbane . He found himself up against the long serving parliamentarian, Edward Barrow Forrest , who had represented the seat since 1899. A close contest ensued, and Kirwan won by 2187 votes to 2150. Kirwan went on to hold
182-737: The Liberal National Party (LNP) has 51 of 93 seats and formed majority government within the unicameral chamber. Initially, the Legislative Assembly was the lower house of a bicameral parliament influenced by the Westminster system . The upper house was the Legislative Council , its members appointed for life by the governor , on advice of the government of the day. The first sitting, in May 1860,
208-639: The Queensland Tourist Bureau . He joined the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock as a member of the library staff in 1938 and retired later in that year. Kirwan married Katherine Swift (died 1945) at Tenterfield on 29 September 1912 and together had one son. He was the first president of the Surf Life Saving Australia (Queensland centre) in 1931-41 and was a member and office-bearer of
234-465: The unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland . Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting . The Assembly has 93 members , who have used the letters MP after their names since 2000 (previously they were styled MLAs ). There is approximately the same population in each electorate ; however, that has not always been
260-597: The 1940s and sought to divide the opposition. In 1962, it was replaced with full preferential voting, as the governing conservatives wanted to take advantage of a split in Labor. In 1992, this was changed to the optional preferential system which was used until full preferential voting was reinstated in 2016. After 1912, electorates elected only a single member to the Assembly. In 1922, the Legislative Council
286-510: The Labor government was able to maximise its vote, particularly in its power base of the provincial city zone. With the split in the party in the late 1950s the ALP lost office and a conservative Coalition government led by the Country Party (later National Party ) under Frank Nicklin came to power, which, as discussed above, initially modified the voting system to introduce preferential voting, to take advantage of Labor's split. It also separated
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#1732782463138312-621: The Queensland Irish Association. Suffering a cerebral haemorrhage , Kirwan died in February 1941. He was accorded a state funeral , to be presided over by Archbishop Duhig at St Stephen's Cathedral and proceeded to the Nudgee Catholic Cemetery . Queensland Legislative Assembly Opposition (36) Crossbench (5) The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of
338-413: The brief and abortive rebellion against Premier Ted Theodore . He wrongly thought this would ruin his political career but on the 14 July 1924 he was promoted to Minister without Office and on 26 February 1925 became Secretary for Public Works, holding this position until his party lost office in 1929 . After losing his nomination in 1932, Premier William Forgan Smith appointed Kirwan as an official of
364-708: The case (in particular, a malapportionment system - not, strictly speaking, a gerrymander - dubbed the Bjelkemander was in effect during the 1970s and 1980s). The Assembly first sat in May 1860 and produced Australia's first Hansard in April 1864. Following the outcome of the 2015 election , successful amendments to the electoral act in early 2016 include: adding an additional four parliamentary seats from 89 to 93, changing from optional preferential voting to full-preferential voting , and moving from unfixed three-year terms to fixed four-year terms. As of October 2024,
390-419: The day to maximise its own voter support at the expense of the opposition. It has been called a form of gerrymander , dubbed the " Bjelkemander " however it is more accurately referred to as an electoral malapportionment . In a classic gerrymander, electoral boundaries are drawn to take advantage of known pockets of supporters and to isolate areas of opposition voters so as to maximise the number of seats for
416-484: The government for a given number of votes and to cause opposition support to be "wasted" by concentrating their supporters in relatively fewer electorates. The Queensland "gerrymander", first introduced by the Labor Party (ALP) government of Ned Hanlon in 1949 used a series of electoral zones based on their distance from Brisbane. Initially Queensland was divided into three zones—the metropolitan zone (Brisbane),
442-535: The malapportionment, Labor was rarely able to garner a higher percentage of the vote than the Coalition for most of this period. In 1989 Labor won government, promising to implement the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, including the establishment of an Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission (EARC). EARC recommended the abolition of the zonal system in favour of
468-417: The provincial cities from their hinterlands. The hinterlands were added to the rural zone, where new Country Party seats were created. As the divisions in the ALP abated in the early 1970s, and tensions in the conservative coalition grew, (thus reducing the advantage to be gained by the use of preferential voting), the conservative government, now led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen , modified the zoning system to add
494-414: The provincial cities zone (which also included rural areas around provincial cities) and the rural zone. While the number of electors in each seat in a zone was roughly equal, there was considerable variation in the number of electors between zones. Thus an electorate in the remote zone might have as few as 5,000 electors, while a seat in the metropolitan zone might have as many as 25,000. Using this system
520-489: The railways as a porter. Due to his strong vocal abilities, Kirwan made a name for himself as a train-caller. As an active member of the Australian Railways Union, Kirwan found himself as one of those at the centre of the 1912 Brisbane general strike , for which he was sacked after the strike came to an end. Kirwan's first attempt at entering Queensland Parliament came at the 1902 state election . As
546-418: The seat for twenty years until he was disendorsed by his party in favour of Australian Workers' Union organizer, Robert Funnell , for the 1932 state election . A vehement anti-conscriptionist, Kirwan was an enthusiastic and dedicated politician and over the years he became a quality speaker and debater. He was appointed chairman of committees in 1920 and in 1924 was one of those elevated to cabinet during
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#1732782463138572-472: The working class from state politics. The Assembly was elected under the first-past-the-post (plurality) system 1860 to 1892. From then until 1942 an unusual form of preferential voting called the contingent vote was used. This was introduced by a conservative government to hinder the emerging Labor Party from gaining seats with minority support. In 1942 the plurality system was reintroduced. The Labor government then in power had seen its vote decline in
598-658: Was Lawrence Springborg , former Minister for Natural Resources and Leader of the Opposition . In 1989, he entered parliament aged 21. The Queensland Legislative Assembly sits in Parliament House in the Brisbane central business district . The building was completed in 1891. The lower house chamber is decorated dark green in the traditional Westminster style. The chamber once featured central tables which divided two rows of elevated benches on each side. The room
624-471: Was abolished, with the help of members known as the suicide squad , who were specially appointed to vote the chamber out of existence. This left Queensland with a unicameral parliament—currently the only Australian state with this arrangement. From 1948 until the reforms following the end of the Bjelke-Petersen era, Queensland used an electoral zoning system that was tweaked by the government of
650-513: Was for the adoption of fair electoral systems around Australia. Although the referendum did not succeed, it heightened public awareness of the issue. A large public interest non-partisan organisation, the Citizens for Democracy, lobbied extensively the Liberal and Labor parties to abolish the gerrymander and to make it a major issue in the lead up to the landmark 1989 Queensland election. Despite
676-580: Was held in the old converted convict barracks in Queen Street . It consisted of 26 members from 16 electorates, nearly half of whom were pastoralists or squatters. Early sessions dealt with issues of land, labour, railways, public works, immigration, education and gold discoveries. In April 1864, Australia's first Hansard was produced. That year also saw member numbers increased to 32, and by 1868—as more redistributions occurred—the number grew to 42. Members were not paid until 1886, effectively excluding
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