Everything about Tasmanian Legislative Council totally explained
The
Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the
Parliament of Tasmania in
Australia. The other is the
House of Assembly. It sits in
Parliament House in the state capital,
Hobart.
Overview
The Council has 15 members, one from each of fifteen electorates. These are commonly known as seats. Each seat is intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Members of the Legislative Council are often referred to as MLC's.
Members in the council come up for re-election separately every six years. Elections will be held in three divisions one year, then two divisions the next year; following this pattern. The council can block supply and force any government to election. The council can't be dissolved as there's nothing in the
Tasmanian constitution to allow this. The council can't be reformed or abolished because the constitution doesn't recognise public
referendums. The only way reform could occur is with the council's own approval.
Tasmania's Legislative Council has never been controlled by a single political party; voters in
Tasmania have always supported independents over candidates endorsed by political parties.
Labor endorses a few candidates in some Legislative Council elections. The Labor party is the most successful of any political party in the council, there have been 18 Labor members in the councils history. The
Liberals maintain the view the legislative council 'is not a party house', however in past elections the party has endorsed candidates with little success. The Liberals have only ever had two members in the Legislative Council one of these
Peter McKay was first elected as an independent in
1976 but became a Liberal in
1991. The party instead backs independent conservatives; many of which were Liberal candidates in previous state of federal elections. The
Tasmanian Greens endorse candidates in elections but have never won a seat on the council.
Candidates for Legislative Council elections are required to limit their expenditure to a specified limit ($10,000 in 2005; increasing by $500 per year). In addition, no other person or political party may incur expenditure to promote a candidate. This is a unique requirement in Australia: no other Australian state or federal elections are subject to expenditure limits.
Only a few members of the council have become ministers. Current Labor member for
Derwent Michael Aird holds the treasury portfolio.
History
The Tasmanian Legislative Council was first created in
1852. The
Australian Colonies Act passed by the British parliament gave
Van Diemens Land a free government. The council had members chosen by both election and the
Governor of Tasmania. In
1856 the Legislative Council passed legislation to create the
Tasmanian House of Assembly (lower house).
Until recently the Tasmanian Legislative Council was considered the most undemocratic in Australia. Rather than being elected by proportional vote (like the
Tasmanian lower house or the
Australian Senate), members are determined in single member seats. Before
1999 the Council had a rural-bias; electoral boundaries were made to include rural communities and didn't have equal populations within each division.
In the
1990s; various Tasmanian governments attempted to cut the size of parliament. Various reports proposed reducing the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 19 seats to 15. Others including the Morling Report
(External Link
); proposed abolishing the Council and merging some of the electorates into the
Tasmanian House of Assembly. However the council wouldn't agree to any of these proposals. During
Tony Rundle's government the Legislative Council finally allowed the
Parliamentary Reform Bill 1998 passage, reducing the number of seats in the chamber from 19 to 15.
In
1999 the new electorates were created by a Distribution Tribunal, in the following years there was much confusion by voters, as to which electorate they were a part of.
The first woman to sit on the Legislative Council was
Margaret McIntyre, in
1948. The first woman to chair the upper house was
Phyllis Benjamin in
1956.
Current Distribution of Seats
| Party |
Seats held |
Current Legislative Council |
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4 |
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11 |
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Further Information
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