Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who was first elected to the South Australian legislative council with less than 3% of the vote through a string of complex preference deals will seek to change the Senate voting rules to make it harder for candidates to be elected after receiving only a fraction of the vote.
Professor of political science at the Australian National University, Adam Moroney, told The (un)Australian that “as Australia’s greatest beneficiary of backroom preference deals that subvert the democratic process, Senator Xenophon is well placed to draft legislation to stamp out the practice once and for all.”
Furthermore, now that Senator Xenophon’s primary vote has been grown to around 25% thanks to the parliamentary profile he won through a myriad of complicated backroom preference deals, Senator Xenophon is prepared to do whatever he can to be of assistance.
Under Senator Xenophon’s scheme, voters who elect to vote above the line in the Senate would be required to choose their first three preferences, rather than the current system which only requires them to nominate one preference. Under this system is would be come extremely difficult for any candidate to be elected with a primary vote lower than 5%.
It would also mean that if Xenophon was to reprise his 2013 electoral performance at the 2016 election, he would win 3-4 seats as opposed to the one he would win under the current system. Senator Xenophon has insisted that the advantages he stands to gain from the reform in no way influenced his change of position.
Nathan Lentern
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