Media release – Jeremy Rockliff, Premier, 9 August 2022

Restoring the size of Parliament

The Tasmanian Liberal Government remains committed to restoring the size of Parliament from 25 to 35 seats in the House of Assembly, which will come into effect at the next state election.

As part of this process, I am today releasing advice from the Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner, Mr Andrew Hawkey, on the implications of restoring the House.

The advice also includes the implications of revising Tasmania’s existing electoral boundaries from five electorates to seven, including the impact on quotas, the costs associated with administering such a change, and the impact on ‘communities of interest’.

It is clear that restoring the House to five seven-member electorates would be the simplest and most cost-effective method that would involve minimal legislative and administrative changes.

By contrast, changing to seven five-member electorates would require significant legislative and administrative changes, with new names for every division and increased expenditure both during the change and at each subsequent election.

It is my intention to table legislation before the end of the year to restore the House of Assembly from 25 to 35 members with five electorates of seven members.

The Commissioner’s advice is available at https://bit.ly/3dh4y4e.

Advisory Brief – Andrew Hawkey, Electoral Commissioner, 24 June 2022

Advice to the Premier in relation to revising Tasmania’s electoral boundaries from 5 to 7 divisions

Executive summary

Following his announcement to commit to restoring the House of Assembly from 25 to 35 seats, the Premier wrote to the Electoral Commissioner on 3 June 2022, requesting advice on the consequences of revising the existing House of Assembly electoral boundaries from 5 electorates to 7 electorates, including but not limited to the impact on quotas and any related costs of administering such a change.

The Premier also raised the impact of such a change on the current geographical divide in the division of Franklin and the expanse of the division of Lyons.

This paper outlines the current arrangements for setting electoral boundaries in both Houses of the Tasmanian Parliament, explores and compares the possible processes to change the House to either five 7-member divisions1 or seven 5-member divisions, including discussing possible impacts on the operation of the Hare-Clark system and electoral administration costs. The paper then provides analysis on the impact the two models have in relation to the quota and how the creation of seven House of Assembly divisions might impact the current configuration of Franklin and Lyons divisions.

Changing the House of Assembly to five 7-member divisions would involve minimal legislative and administrative changes. The additional cost per State election is estimated at $100,000

. Changing the House of Assembly to seven 5-member divisions would break the nexus between Commonwealth and State lower house electoral boundaries and would require:

• the enactment of new House of Assembly electoral boundary redistribution legislation, likely along the lines of the Legislative Council Electoral Boundaries Act 1995,

• the appointment of an independent body to conduct a redistribution process,

• the creation of seven new divisions and new names for each division,

• the process of allocating the new House of Assembly divisions codes to all Tasmanian addresses in the national enrolment address database, and

• a significant multi-faceted education and awareness campaign for all Tasmanian electors, including a direct mail-out to every Tasmanian elector.

A very rough estimate of the time and cost in adopting the seven 5-member divisions model for the House of Assembly would be around two years and over $2,500,000. The additional cost per State election is estimated at $300,000.

When analysing the impact the two models have on the quota, the paper outlines that both models will produce a quota lower than the current five 5-member division model, with the five 7-member model providing a higher quota than the seven 5-member model.

The last section of this paper discusses the processes and considerations undertaken when creating and reviewing electoral boundaries and what issues may either be solved or created as a possible consequence of seven divisions. While a possible example of seven divisions can remove the circumstances of a divided division, it is likely to create a major split through the Hobart City municipal area and create community of interest concerns for northern Tasmania.

Due to the geography and concentrations of the Tasmanian population, it is highly likely that a central expansive division, similar to the current division of Lyons, will be created under all models.

Cassy O’Connor MP, Greens Leader, 8 August 2022

Restoration of Tasmania’s Parliament

Advice from the Tasmanian Electoral Commission confirms the best and cheapest way to restore the numbers in the House of Assembly is to simply reverse the legislative change made in 1998.

Premier Rockliff today released the TEC advice to MPs, with a commitment to introduce legislative amendments that deliver a straight fix.

This will mean at the next state election seven MPs, instead of the current five, will be elected in each of Franklin, Clark, Lyons, Bass and Braddon.

The alternative, supported by the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is complicated, disruptive and very costly. It also has no clear benefit.

The TCCI has egg on its face that’ll take some time to wash off.

The Greens are very pleased common sense has prevailed, and thank the Premier for resisting TCCI pressure on this occasion.

A restored House of Assembly will deliver a deeper talent pool, better community representation and stronger governance for all Tasmanians.

We very much look forward to the day.