Western Australian Legislative Assembly

Last updated

Legislative Assembly
41st Parliament
Emblem of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly.svg
Type
Type
History
Founded30 December 1890;133 years ago (30 December 1890)
Leadership
Michelle Roberts, Labor
since 29 April 2021
Deputy Speaker
Stephen Price, Labor
since 11 May 2017
Leader of the House
David Templeman, Labor
since 17 March 2017
Manager of Opposition Business
Peter Rundle, Nationals
since 30 January 2023
Government Whip
Cassie Rowe, Labor
since 17 March 2021
Opposition Whip
Vacant
since 31 October 2023
Structure
Seats59
2023.11.03 Western Australian Legislative Assembly - Composition of Members.svg
Political groups
Government (53)
  Labor (53)
Opposition (6)
  National (3)
  Liberal (3) [lower-alpha 1]
Length of term
4 years
Elections
Full preferential voting
First election
December 1890
Last election
13 March 2021
Next election
8 March 2025
Meeting place
Western Australian Legislative Assembly.jpg
Legislative Assembly Chamber
Parliament House, Perth
Western Australia, Australia
Website
WA Legislative Assembly

The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House in the Western Australian capital, Perth.

Contents

The Legislative Assembly today has 59 members, elected for four-year terms from single-member electoral districts. Members are elected using the preferential voting system. As with all other Australian states and territories, voting is compulsory for all Australian citizens over the legal voting age of 18.

Role and operation

Most legislation in Western Australia is initiated in the Legislative Assembly. The party or coalition that can command a majority in the Legislative Assembly is invited by the Governor to form a government. That party or coalition's leader, once sworn in, subsequently becomes the Premier of Western Australia, and a team of the leader's, party's or coalition's choosing (whether they be in the Legislative Assembly or in the Legislative Council) can then be sworn in as ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian political parties traditionally vote along party lines, most legislation introduced by the governing party will pass through the House of Assembly.

History

Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1896 WA Legislative Assembly 1896.JPG
Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1896

The Legislative Assembly was the first elected legislature in Western Australia, having been created in 1890, when Western Australia gained self-government. It initially consisted of 30 members, all of whom were elected, although only male landowners could vote. This replaced a system where the Governor was responsible for most legislative matters, with only the appointed Legislative Council to guide him.

Legislative Assembly - 4 November 2012 Legislative Assembly of Western Australian.jpg
Legislative Assembly – 4 November 2012

Suffrage was extended to all adult males in 1893, although Indigenous Australians were specifically excluded. Women gained the right to vote in 1899, making Western Australia the second of the Australian colonies (behind South Australia) to do so. In 1921, Edith Cowan became the first woman to be elected to parliament anywhere in Australia when she won the Legislative Assembly seat of West Perth for the Nationalist Party. [1]

Electoral distribution and reform

For many years, Western Australia used a zonal electoral system for both houses of parliament. In most Australian jurisdictions, each state electorate represents an approximately equal number of voters. However, in Western Australia, until 2008 an MP represented 28,519 voters in greater Perth (the Metropolitan Region Scheme area) or 14,551 country voters. [2] At the 2006 census taken on 8 August 2006, 73.76% of Western Australia's residents lived in and around Perth, [3] but only 34 of Western Australia's 57 Legislative Assembly seats, representing 60% of the total, were located in the metropolitan region. There has been strong support over time in some quarters for the principle of one vote, one value, particularly from the Labor Party who were at particular disadvantage under the system. Up until 2005, reform had proceeded gradually—the most dramatic changes had occurred with the enactment of the Electoral Districts Act 1947 and the Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987, the latter of which raised the number of metropolitan seats from 29 to 34. [4]

Effective on 20 May 2005, the Electoral Amendment and Repeal Act 2005 (No.1 of 2005) abolished the country-metropolitan distinction for the Legislative Assembly, but all seats then in place remained until the following election on 6 September 2008. A redistribution of seats announced by the Western Australian Electoral Commission on 29 October 2007 places 42 seats in Perth and 17 in the country, with a variation of ±10% from the average population normally permitted. The only distinction for rural seats is that any seat with an area of 100,000 square kilometres (38,610 sq mi) or greater (that is, 4% of the State's land area) may have a variation of +10%–20% from the average, using an adjusted population based on the seat's area in square kilometres. [5]

Current distribution of Assembly seats

PartySeats held [6]
Labor 5353
 
National 33
 
Liberal 33
 
Total59

30 votes as a majority are required to pass legislation.

See also

Notes

  1. After the 2021 election, the Nationals and Liberals formed an opposition alliance. However, it is not a formal coalition and both parties maintain their independence from each other.

Related Research Articles

The parliaments of the Australian states and territories are legislative bodies within the federal framework of the Commonwealth of Australia.

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

The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to its federal counterpart, the Australian Senate. Although, it is possible for legislation to be first introduced in the Council, most bills receive their first hearing in the Legislative Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Territory Legislative Assembly</span> Legislative house of the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory

The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method for the Assembly is the full-preferential voting system, having previously been optional preferential voting. Elections are on the fourth Saturday in August of the fourth year after the previous election, but can be earlier in the event of a no confidence vote in the government. The most recent election for the Legislative Assembly was the 2020 election held on 22 August. The next election is scheduled for 24 August 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Australian House of Assembly</span> Lower house of the states Parliament

The House of Assembly, or lower house; Is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of South Australia</span> Bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia

The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly and the 22-seat Legislative Council. General elections are held every 4 years, with all of the lower house and half of the upper house filled at each election. It follows a Westminster system of parliamentary government with the executive branch required to both sit in parliament and hold the confidence of the House of Assembly. The parliament is based at Parliament House on North Terrace in the state capital of Adelaide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Australian Legislative Council</span> Upper house of the legislature of Western Australia

The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly, the lower house. The two Houses of Parliament sit in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legislative Assembly of Queensland</span> Chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland

The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly has 93 members, who have used the letters MP after their names since 2000.

A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member electoral divisions with single transferable voting, a group or party registers a GVT before an election with the electoral commission. When a voter selects a group or party above the line on a ballot paper, their vote is distributed according to the registered GVT for that group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral district of Collie-Preston</span> State electoral district of Western Australia

Collie-Preston is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. While the seat was known as Collie for just over a century of its existence as an electorate, the seat was known as South West Mining from 1901 to 1904, and Collie-Wellington from 2005 to 2008. It is named for the South West coal mining town of Collie. While historically a very safe seat for the Labor Party, redistributions in 1988 and 2007 due to increases in the quota for country seats which had historically been malapportioned resulted in the seat incorporating surrounding rural shires which were hostile to Labor and thereby becoming more marginal.

Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a ranked voting method used in single-winner elections. IRV is also known outside the US as the alternative vote (AV). Today it is in use at a national level to elect the Australian House of Representatives, the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, the President of Ireland and President of India. In Australia it is also used for elections to the legislative assemblies of all states and territories except Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, and for the Tasmanian Legislative Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Australian National Party</span> Australian political party

The National Party of Australia (WA) Inc, branded The Nationals WA, is a political party in Western Australia. It is affiliated with the National Party of Australia, but maintains a separate structure and identity. Since the 2021 state election, the Nationals WA is the senior party in an opposition alliance with the WA Liberal Party in the WA Parliament. Prior to the election, the National Party was sitting in the crossbench, and the Liberal Party was the sole opposition party. The election resulted in the National Party winning more seats than the Liberal Party, and gaining official opposition status. Under the opposition alliance, the National Party leader and deputy leader would be the opposition leader and deputy opposition leader, respectively, the first since 1947, and each party would maintain their independence from each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 Western Australian state election</span> Australian state election

The 2008 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council. The incumbent centre-left Labor Party government, in power since the 2001 election and led since 25 January 2006 by Premier Alan Carpenter, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal Party opposition, led by Opposition Leader Colin Barnett since 6 August 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral district of Kalamunda</span> State electoral district of Western Australia

Kalamunda is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The Metropolitan Province was a multi-member electoral province of the Western Australian Legislative Council, located in the metropolitan region of Perth. It was created by the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1893, and became effective on 22 May 1894 following the first council elections following the granting of responsible government to Western Australia. The seat was safe for the Liberal Party and its predecessors.

The South Metropolitan Province was a two-member electoral province of the Western Australian Legislative Council, located in metropolitan Perth. It was one of several metropolitan seats created following the enactment of the Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No.2) 1963, and became effective on 22 May 1965. The province was very safe for the Labor Party, which held most or all of the component Assembly seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral regions of Western Australia</span>

The Western Australian Legislative Council was elected from six multi-member electoral regions, which are in turn composed of electoral districts which are used to elect the Legislative Assembly. The current number of electoral regions was established on 22 May 1989. Initially, the South West and Northern Metropolitan regions returned seven members to the Legislative Council, while the other regions each returned five members. This arrangement was changed to have each region return six members for the 2008 Western Australian election, increasing the total number of members from 34 to 36. Before 1989 electoral divisions for the Legislative Council were known as electoral provinces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Western Australian state election</span> State general election for Western Australia

The 2017 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 11 March 2017 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, including all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Legislative Council. The eight-and-a-half-year two-term incumbent Liberal–WA National government, led by Premier Colin Barnett, was defeated in a landslide by the Labor opposition, led by Opposition Leader Mark McGowan.

Lyla Daphne Elliott was an Australian politician who was a Labor member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia between 1971 and 1986, representing North-East Metropolitan Province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2025 Western Australian state election</span> Upcoming state general election for Western Australia

The 2025 Western Australian state election is scheduled to be held on 8 March 2025 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 37 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election.

A referendum concerning the reform of the New South Wales Legislative Council was put to New South Wales voters on 13 May 1933 and was passed by the voters with a margin of 2.94%. The text of the question was:

Do you approve of the Bill entitled "A Bill to reform the constitution and alter the Powers of the Legislative Council; to reduce and limit the number of Members of the Legislative Council; to reconstitute the Legislative Council in accordance with the reformed constitution; to amend the Constitution Act, 1902, and certain other Acts; and for purposes connected therewith."

References

  1. "Edith Dircksey Cowan". Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  2. Western Australian Electoral Commission (30 September 2007). "Electoral enrolment statistics" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  3. Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Perth (Statistical Division)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
    * Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Western Australia". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  4. "Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987". Western Australian Legislation. 12 July 1987. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  5. Electoral Amendment and Repeal Act 2005 (No. 1 of 2005) , retrieved 26 February 2021
  6. "WA Election 2017". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 17 March 2017.