The Proportional Representation Society of Australia is an

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-ru ...

organisation in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It has branches in South Australia, Victoria-Tasmania, New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Its membership includes people that have successfully promoted electoral reform. The Society regularly reviews and makes submissions on electoral reform within Australia with a focus on multi-member

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

–

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

voting systems An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

. It has made submissions to international organizations including the United Nations and the New Zealand Parliament.

History

The Society's began before the commencement of Australia as a Federation with

Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of ...

as one of its founding members. See details of the growth and success of quota-preferential proportional representation in Australia, particularly at the national level. Catherine Helen Spence's 1861 booklet, ''A Plea for Pure Democracy'', helped the early formation of a proportional representation group called the 'Effective Voting League of South Australia'. Miss Catherine Spence was the first female candidate at a public election in the then British Empire when she stood unsuccessfully at the 1897 election (under the multiple vote) for the 1897 Australasian Federal Convention. A statue in Light Square in Adelaide, unveiled on 10 March 1986 by Her Majesty the Queen, commemorates Spence. The PRSA later launched its reprint of her booklet there. She is remembered by her autobiography, and was depicted on the Australian $5 banknote issued for the Centenary of Federation, in 2001. The PRSA's SA Branch (the

Electoral Reform Society The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an independent campaigning organisation based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the single t ...

of South Australia) influenced the replacement of the first party list system used, briefly, for Australian parliamentary elections, introduced by the Dunstan Labor Government in 1973, b
direct election
using the present quota-preferential form of

that the SA Electoral Act 1985 prescribes for elections for SA's Legislative Council. The SA Constitution Act 1934 requires a referendum before either House can be abolished, but does not specify or entrench the electoral system.

Advocacy

The Society advocates the use of Hare-Clark proportional voting, a form of the

Single Transferable Vote method Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

(STV) that is currently in use for elections in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. It has published a quarterly newsletter entitled ''Quota Notes''. The Society has also published educational documents and aids such as * Rules for Counting Single Transferable Votes * The

Gerrymander In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

Wheel, a simple calculator to demonstrate the perceived futility of drawing geographical boundaries in a single-member electorate system.

Issues

The Society has raised issues in relation to the conduct of public elections in Australia, which include: * Robson Rotation, the need to randomly order candidates' listings in the printing of ballot papers so as to minimize the effect of

donkey voting The domestic donkey is a ungulates, hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'' ...

* The rules for the calculation of th
surplus transfer value
in the distribution of preferences in proportional representation counts. * Opposition to the voting device imposed on certain Australian proportional representation elections * Filling casual vacancies by countback, which is a form of direct election, rather than by the party appointment system used to fill Senate and Legislative Council casual vacancies. * Electronic voting, and the introduction and use of computer technology in the conduct of elections

Submissions to Government

The Proportional Representation Society has made submissions to governments which have influenced the development and formation of Australia's electoral systems, as can be seen at its News pages.

Public discussion and forums

The Society holds and participates in public meetings and forums on electoral reform in various parts of Australia. There is a 2009 presentation by Malcolm Mackerras, an electoral analyst and political journalist.

Vote-counting Service

The Proportional Representation Society's Victoria-Tasmania Branch also provides services in counting votes or fully conducting elections for corporate and community organizations in Australia including economical computations of results by email. See its list of clients.

Associations

The Society maintains a connection with: * The

STV Action UK

The Center for Voting and Democracy USA

Fair Vote Canada

Fair Voting British Columbia

References and footnotes

{{Reflist

External links

Official PRSA Web site

Proportional Representation Society of Australia (NSW)

Proportional Representation Society of Australia (SA)

Elections and Representative government and representation – Australia

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Archives
Growth details

2009 presentation

Malcolm Mackerras

Psephology Elections in Australia