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Papers on Parliament No. 34
December 1999Representation
and Institutional Change
50 Years of Proportional Representation in the SenateEdited
by Marian Sawer and Sarah MiskinPapers
from a conference arranged by The Political Science Program, Research School of
Social Sciences, Australian National University, and The Department of the Senate. Published
and printed by the Department of the Senate, 1999 Papers
on Parliament is managed by the Research Section, Department of the Senate. All
inquiries should be made to: The Director of Research
Procedure Office
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 3078 ISSN
1031–976X
ISBN 0 642 71061 9 This edition revised
for Internet publication, February 2000 Contents
1 Overview: Institutional Design and
the Role of the Senate
Marian
Sawer
2 Why We Chose Proportional Representation
John Uhr
3 The Senate and Representative Democracy
Elaine
Thompson
4 Australian Democracy: Modifying Majoritarianism?
Arend Lijphart
5 Accountability Versus Government
Control:/the Effect of Proportional Representation
Harry Evans
6 Can the Senate Claim a Mandate?
Murray Goot
7 Dilemmas of Representation
Marian Sawer
8 ‘Survival of the Fittest’:
Future Directions of the Senate
Helen
Coonan
9 A Squeeze on the Balance of Power:
Using Senate ‘Reform’ to Dilute Democracy
Andrew
Bartlett
10 A Labor Perspective on Senate Reform
John Faulkner
11 Should Parliament be Abolished?
Fred Chaney
12 The Contribution of The Greens (WA)
to the Australian Senate
Dee
Margetts
13 The Representation of Small Parties
and Independents
Campbell Sharman
14 Reporting the Senate: Three Perspectives
Paul Bongiorno Michelle
Grattan Melissa Langerman
15 Lobbying the Senate: Two Perspectives
Peter Sekuless Francis
Sullivan
16 Personalities versus Structure:
the Fragmentation of the Senate Committee System
Anne
Lynch
17 Opening Up the Policy Process
Ian Marsh
18 Cyberdemocracy and the Future of
the Australian Senate
Kate
Lundy
19 The Senate and Proportional Representation:
Some Concluding Observations
Geoffrey
Brennan Tables, Figures and Illustrations p. 4 Table 1.2 Milestones
in Senate reform since 1949 p. 7 Illustration Tanner cartoon,
Age (Melbourne), 6 November 1992, with permission from Les Tanner p.
47 Table 3.1 Senate party composition since 1949 p. 49 Table
3.2 Executive and party leadership in the Australian Parliament—positions
first achieved by women senators p. 61 Table 4.1 Average
electoral disproportionality and type of electoral system in 36 democracies, 1945–1996 p.
67 Table 4.2 Bivariate regression analyses of the effect of electoral proportionality
on 16 macro-economic performance variable p. 69 Table 4.3
Bivariate regression analyses of the effect of electoral proportionality on 10
indicators of the quality of democracy p. 103 Table 7.1
Meanings of political representation p. 125 Illustration
National Times, October 27–November 1, 1975, p. 2, State Library of
New South Wales p. 147 Illustration Jenny Coopes cartoon,
with permission from Jenny Coopes p. 158 Graph Senate, minor
party and independent vote, 1949–1998 p. 172 Illustration
Pryor cartoon, Canberra Times, 27 June 1992, p. 4, with permission from
Geoff Pryor ContributorsJohn
Uhr is a Reader in Public Policy at the Australian National University. He is
the author of Deliberative Democracy in Australia (1998) and the editor
of The Australian Republic: the Case for Yes (1999). Elaine Thompson
is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of NSW. Her books include
Fair Enough: Egalitarianism in Australia (1994). Arend Lijphart is
Research Professor in Political Science, University of California, San Diego.
His books include Electoral Systems and Party Systems (1994) and Patterns
of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty–Six Countries
(1999). Harry Evans has been Clerk of the Senate since 1988. His publications
include Constitutionalism and Party Government in Australia (1988) and
Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice (7th, 8th
and 9th editions). Murray Goot is Professor of Politics at Macquarie
University, and author of many works on voting and opinion polls. Marian
Sawer is convenor of the governance strand of the Reshaping Australian Institutions
Project in the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. Her books include
Representation: Theory and Practice in Australian Politics, forthcoming,
co-edited with Gianni Zappal. Fred Chaney was a member of the Senate from
1974 to 1990 and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1983 to 1990. He
was a minister in the Fraser Government. Helen Coonan
is a senator for NSW and Government Deputy Whip in the Senate, a position she
has held since November 1998. She is a lawyer by profession. Andrew Bartlett
is a senator for Queensland and Australian Democrats spokesman for Electoral Matters,
Immigration, Social Security, Environment, Gay and Lesbian Issues, Veterans’
Affairs and Housing. He has been president of the Queensland branch of the Australian
Democrats, and was the national campaign manager for the 1998 election. John
Faulkner is a senator for NSW and is Shadow Minister for Public Administration
and Government Services and Shadow Minister for Olympic Coordination and the Centenary
of Federation. He has been Leader of the Opposition in the Senate since 1996. Dee
Margetts was a Greens senator for Western Australia from 1993 to 1999. She is
currently researching for a Master’s degree in Economics. Campbell
Sharman is a member of the Political Science Department at the University of Western
Australia. He has a longstanding interest in the Australian federal system and
the effect of constitutional and electoral rules on the political process. Paul
Bongiorno is Network Ten’s political editor and Canberra bureau chief. He
has been a journalist for 25 years, and has covered federal politics for the past
11 years. He is currently president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Michelle
Grattan is Chief Political Correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald.
She is a former editor of the Canberra Times and a former Chief Political
Correspondent for the Age. Melissa Langerman
has worked for the Australian Associated Press since 1987, and was responsible
for co-ordinating AAP coverage of the Senate for seven years. AAP is the only
media organisation to cover both the House of Representatives and the Senate in
detail. Peter Sekuless founded the government relations firm Canberra Liaison
with Jonathan Gaul in 1978, and has been a professional lobbyist for more than
20 years. He has written several books, including two on lobbying. Francis
Sullivan is the executive director of Catholic Health Australia, which represents
60 Catholic private and public hospitals and more than 500 Catholic aged-care
services in Australia. Previously, he was a senior adviser to West Australia’s
Minister of Health. Anne Lynch is the Deputy Clerk
of the Senate and secretary to the Privileges Committee, positions she has held
since 1988. She has written several articles dealing with parliamentary topics,
especially the accountability of public entities to Parliament. Ian
Marsh is Associate Professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management.
His books include Beyond the Two-Party System: Political Representation, Economic
Competitiveness and Australian Politics (1995). Kate Lundy is a senator
for the ACT, and is Shadow Minister Assisting on New Technology and Shadow Minister
for Sport and Youth Affairs. She is a member of several parliamentary committees,
including the Senate Legislation and References Committees on Finance and Public
Administration as well as the Senate Legislation and References Committees on
Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts. Geoffrey Brennan is
a former Director of the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, and is coordinator
of the Reshaping Australian Institutions Project. AcknowledgmentsIn
light of the extent and significance of the institutional changes that have flowed
from the adoption of proportional representation, the Political Science Program
in the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, in
conjunction with the Department of the Senate, organised a conference to mark
the jubilee of its first use for the Senate. The conference, from which this volume
takes its name, was held in Parliament House, on 5 and 6 August 1999. Present
and former senators, political scientists, political observers and enthusiasts
for PR gathered in the Main Committee Room to present papers and debate the past,
present and future of the Senate. The conference opened with a welcome to Ngunnawal
land by Matilda House. All of the conference papers are
published in this volume and three of them (Goot, Lijphart, Sharman) are also
being published in the Australian Journal of Political Science. The papers
have been revised to incorporate the comments offered by conference participants,
many of whom themselves made substantive contributions from the floor. One such
contribution from the floor has led to an additional paper being included in the
volume, Anne Lynch’s paper on the growth of partisanship within the Senate
committee system. The Research Section of the Department
of the Senate, headed by Wayne Hooper, provided invaluable assistance throughout.
The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, was an inspiration in his dedication to
the Senate and its history. Professors Geoff Brennan and Frank Castles of the
Reshaping Australian Institutions Project at the Research School of Social Sciences
also lent every support and Mary Hapel of RAI did most of the day-to-day administration.
Professor Arend Lijphart, the leading international authority on the institutional
impact of PR, flew from California to be the keynote speaker at the conference.
He did much to make the event a success. Our thanks to all of these and Gillian
Evans, Ben Miskin and David Sullivan.
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