Comment on recent Queensland election results

28/7/95

Democracy was the loser when the Queensland ALP Government could retain power after 52.5 per cent of voters had opted for a Coalition Government, Electoral and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Norman Moore said today.

"It is nonsense for Labor to talk about having introduced one-vote-one-value reforms when its electoral system delivers the first Queensland minority government for many years," Mr Moore said.

The National and Liberal Parties in Queensland have been attacked by the ALP during 32 years in office for supporting an alleged gerrymander.

Mr Moore said it was a fact of history that never once in Queensland over that time was Labor denied office when a majority of the electorate had voted for them.  

He said the ALP in Western Australia tried to imply that equal enrolments in all seats was the fairest system.  This was the basis of its High Court action.

"The Queensland example shows that Labor's version of electoral reform has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with electoral survival," the Minister said.

Mr Moore noted that increasing numbers of impartial commentators agreed that democracy was the loser when an electoral system denied the choice of the majority of voters.

The former Australian Electoral Officer, Professor Colin Hughes, was now calling for real reform to stop the election of minority governments in this way.

"We should all remember the continuing damage that was done to WA between 1989 and 1993, when the State ALP Government was re-elected with 52.7 per cent of Western Australians having voted against it," Mr Moore said.

Media contact: Anabel Gomez 321 1444 or pgr 480 5325