Electorates in Australia

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Electorates in Australia are geographically defined areas represented by a single elected Member of Parliament. Known officially as divisions at the federal level and electoral districts at the state and territory level, "electorates" are also commonly referred to as seats or constituencies . Electorates are designed so that there is approximately the same number of voters in each electorate. [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian House of Representatives</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Australia

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are set down in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.

The electoral system of Australia comprises the laws and processes used for the election of members of the Australian Parliament and is governed primarily by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The system presently has a number of distinctive features including compulsory enrolment; compulsory voting; majority-preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the House of Representatives; and the use of the single transferable vote proportional representation system to elect the upper house, the Senate.

Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories are broadly similar to the electoral system used in federal elections in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Werriwa</span> Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Werriwa is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established in 1900. The division was one of the original 65 divisions first contested at the first federal election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian Legislative Assembly</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The main colour used for the upholstery and carpets furnishing the Chamber of the Legislative Assembly is green.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian House of Assembly</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania

The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Electoral Commission</span> Agency responsible for federal elections in Australia

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory authority and agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management of federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums.

Elections in Australia take place periodically to elect the legislature of the Commonwealth of Australia, as well as for each Australian state and territory and for local government councils. Elections in all jurisdictions follow similar principles, although there are minor variations between them. The elections for the Australian Parliament are held under the federal electoral system, which is uniform throughout the country, and the elections for state and territory Parliaments are held under the electoral system of each state and territory. An election day is always a Saturday, but early voting is allowed in the lead-up to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electorates of the Australian House of Representatives</span> Federal electorates in Australia

Electorates of the Australian House of Representatives are single member electoral districts for the lower house of the Parliament of the Commonwealth. There are currently 151 electorates.

The Division of Canberra is an Australian electoral division in the Australian Capital Territory. It is named for the city of Canberra, Australia's national capital, and includes all of central Canberra, Kowen, Majura, as well as part of Weston Creek, Woden Valley, Molonglo Valley, Belconnen, and Jerrabomberra. Canberra's Parliament House, the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, is located within the division. It is currently held by Alicia Payne of the Labor Party.

The Division of Kennedy is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Lingiari</span> Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Lingiari is an Australian electoral division in the Northern Territory that covers the entirety of the territory outside of the Division of Solomon, which covers Darwin and surrounding areas. The division also includes the territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Kalgoorlie</span> Former Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Kalgoorlie was an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia, named after the city of Kalgoorlie. The Division was proclaimed in 1900 as one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election in 1901. In its final form, it covered most of the land area of Western Australia, with a size of 2,295,354 square kilometres (886,241 sq mi)—over 90 percent of the state's landmass. It included the Goldfields-Esperance, Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia, in addition to the eastern and far northern parts of the Mid West region, and the town of Merredin. It was the largest single-member electorate by area in the world—almost a third of the continent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Lyons (state)</span> Tasmanian state electoral division

The electoral division of Lyons is one of the five electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly, with the largest electorate and covering most of central and eastern Tasmania. Lyons is named jointly in honour of Joseph Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia (1932–1939); Premier of Tasmania (1923–1928), and Joseph's wife, Dame Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to the Australian House of Representatives in 1943. The electorate shares its name and boundaries with the federal division of Lyons.

In Australia, a redistribution is the process of redrawing the boundaries of electoral divisions for the House of Representatives arising from changes in population and changes in the number of representatives. There is no redistribution for the Senate as each State constitutes a division, though with multiple members. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), an independent statutory authority, oversees the apportionment and redistribution process for federal divisions, taking into account a number of factors. Politicians, political parties and the public may make submissions to the AEC on proposed new boundaries, but any interference with their deliberations is considered a serious offence.

The lower houses of the parliaments of the states and territories of Australia are divided into electoral districts. Most electoral districts send a single member to a state or territory's parliament using the preferential method of voting. The area of a state electoral district is dependent upon the Electoral Acts in the various states and vary in area between them. At present, there are 409 state electoral districts in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1909 Tasmanian state election</span>

The 1909 Tasmanian state election was held on Friday, 30 April 1909 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. This was the first general election in the British Empire to elect all members through a form of proportional representation, the single transferable vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Durack</span> Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Durack is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia.

Western Australia politics takes place in context of a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliamentary system, and like other Australian states, Western Australia is part of the federation known as the Commonwealth of Australia.

The Division of Bean is an electoral division for the Australian House of Representatives in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Norfolk Island, which was created in 2018 and contested for the first time at the 2019 federal election.

References

  1. "Federal elections - Parliamentary Education Office".