Background

Background to this Redistribution

The Legislative Council is currently comprised of 15 single member electoral divisions with elections held under a preferential voting system. Every member of the Council holds office for a fixed term of six years.

Elections are conducted on a 6 year periodic cycle. Elections for 3 members are held in May one year, with elections for 2 members held in May the following year and so on.

Summary of provisions of the relevant Legislation

The Process

The process commences with an Initial Redistribution Proposal published by the Redistribution Committee.

After the publication of the Initial Proposal the Committee is dissolved. The members of the Committee become members of the Redistribution Tribunal and are joined by the Chairperson and other Member of the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

The Tribunal recieves all submisssions and may hold inquiries.

Once the Redistribution Tribunal has concluded its inquiries into any submissions made to the Initial Proposal it must make a Further Redistribution Proposal. The Redistribution Tribunal may consider subsequent submissions before making a final determination. Once the final determination of the new electoral boundaries and the names of the new divisions are made, the Tribunal must then determine the transition arrangements in respect of the newly determined divisions.

The overall period for the entire redistribution process can take up to 9 months.

The Steps

The Committee

The Redistribution Committee comprises:

Mr Andrew Hawkey, the Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner [Chair]
Michael Guidici, the Surveyor-General; and
Lisa Wardlaw-Kelly, nominee of the Australian Statistician.

Gazette

The Tribunal

The Redistribution Tribunal comprises:

Mike Blake, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission [Chair];
Karen Frost, the member of the Electoral Commission;
Andrew Hawkey, the Tasmanian Electoral Commisioner;
Michael Guidici, the Surveyor-General; and
Lisa Wardlaw-Kelly, nominee of the Australian Statistician.

Gazette

Quota

For this redistribution the average divisional enrolment, or Quota, is 24,998 (determined as at 30 September 2016).

Quota Notice

Current Divisions

current Legislative Council boundaries

Proposed timetable

An outline of the proposed dates and the required timeframes for each step in the process.

Projected Enrolment Methodology

As in previous redistributions, the Redistribution Committee decided to use the services of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to provide projected enrolment statistics. Read the comprehensive details of the projection methodology and necessary assumptions here. [PDF opens in new tab]

The Redistribution Criteria

In accordance with Section 13 of the Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995 the Redistribution Committee must take into account the following priorities–

the first priority is to ensure, as far as practicable, that the number of electors in each Council division would not, (in four and a half years time) vary more than ±10% of the average Council division enrolment.
the second priority is to take into account community of interest within each Council division.

After taking into account the priorities specified above, the Redistribution Committee must consider the following matters in the case of each electoral division–

the means of communication and travel within the division;
the physical features and area of the division;
existing electoral boundaries;
distinct natural boundaries.

The Council division quota is to be the basis for the Initial Redistribution Proposal.

For this redistribution the average divisional enrolment, or Quota, is 24,998 and was determined as at 30 September 2016.

In no case is any variation from the Council division quota to exceed 10 percent.

Considerations

The scale of the redistribution, while not as large as the redistribution in 1998/99 which implemented Parliament’s decrease of 19 Legislative Council divisions to 15, is greater than the redistribution in 2007/08. Put simply, from the 30 September 2016 enrolment figures:

Of the eight Legislative Council divisions north and east of Campbell Town:

only one division is above the average enrolment (Rosevears: +1.75%)
the other seven have a combined divergence of -23.08% from the average.

Of the seven Legislative Council divisions south of Campbell Town:

only one division is below the average enrolment (Nelson: -6.05%)
the other six have a combined divergence of +27.38% from the average.

The southern movement of electors is even further pronounced when comparing:

Murchison, which has decreased from +7.80% (1998) to -3.08% (2016) with a forward projection of -6.56% and
Rumney, which has increased from -7.63% (1998) to +10.15% (2016) with a forward projection of +13.54%.

The general eastward and southward movement trend of elector numbers over the last 18 years continues across this redistribution's four-and-a-half year enrolment projections.