On the pressing need for a standing Electoral Matters Committee in Queensland
We are a group of academics, election commentators and democracy campaigners who have come together to shine a light on Queensland’s pressing need for electoral reform after thirty years of inaction.
In this letter, we make the case that a cross-party standing Electoral Matters Committee with the power to self-initiate their own inquiries is the only path forward on the urgent democratic reforms Queensland needs.
This term of government will see a routine but significant redistribution in Queensland. The likely outcome of which is significant changes to boundaries of almost all electorates in Queensland, especially affecting the four very rural divisions as they expand into the outer suburbs of coastal cities.The only path to getting meaningful reform is a collegiate, cross-party committee undertaking routine reviews of elections and preparing to compromise to deliver the best outcome for our democracy.From updating redistribution processes, fixing our broken Committee system, reviewing our local government elections, or increasing the size of Parliament, Queensland’s lack of a forum to have important discussions about the future of our democracy has left us with a deeply flawed electoral system.
Queensland has not had an independent and wide-ranging review of our electoral systems and the health of our state’s democracy since the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission concluded their reporting in 1993.
The last systemic review the public could participate in was in 2013 with the Attorney General’s Department’s discussion paper on electoral reform.An Electoral Matters Committee is an essential piece of Parliament’s oversight and integrity toolkit. Queensland is increasingly an outlier among local jurisdictions for not having regular inquiries into elections conducted by an independent committee.The Commonwealth’s Joint Select Committee on Electoral Matters and its predecessor has held routine inquiries since 1983. New South Wales and Victoria have both had standing committees since 2005 and Tasmania established theirs earlier this year.Some other jurisdictions run routine election inquiries through their justice and legal affairs portfolio committees, which has been the practice after each election since 1999 in Aotearoa New Zealand and 2011 in the ACT.Only Western Australia and the Northern Territory join Queensland in not having at least semi-regular inquiries into their elections.These reviews are conducted routinely in other states, territories and in the Commonwealth by a cross-party standing committee, most of which have operated for decades. These committees’ reports have led to significant reform.
Queensland by comparison remains mired in partisan deadlock.
Recommendations
In the interest of improving Queensland’s democratic institutions for everyone, we, the undersigned, recommend that:
Queensland Parliament establish a standing Electoral Matters Committee:
whose purpose will be to inquire into any such matters regarding the administration, structure and governance of Queensland’s democracy,
with seven members including sufficient, diverse representation from Opposition and crossbench members,
who must conduct a routine and open review of the conduct of a state or local election within 18 months of the return of writs for that election,
that gives members of the public and interested organisations the opportunity to comment on any aspect of an election and the administration of our democracy, and
who can initiate inquiries into any relevant issue either by reference from Parliament, reference from a relevant Minister or under their own initiative.
The new Committee be tasked with inquiring into these topics over the next term of Parliament:
Queensland’s local governments, their structure and boundaries, and the conduct of the 2024 local government elections, and
Queensland’s Parliament, its composition, operations and elections thereof with special focus on the conduct of the 2024 state election, the size of Parliament, the appropriateness of the electoral system, the effectiveness of the Committee system and campaign finance laws.
We look forward to your urgent attention to one of the most pressing challenges facing Queensland today.Yours the undersigned,
Signatories
| AJ Brown | Chair, Transparency International Australia |
| Ben Raue | Election analyst, The Tally Room |
| Bill Browne | Democracy and Accountability Director, The Australia Institute |
| Gabrielle Appleby | Director, Centre for Public Integrity |
| Graeme Orr | Professor, The University of Queensland |
| Jeremy Lawrence | President, Proportional Representation Society |
| John Mickel | Former Speaker, Queensland Parliament |
| John Wanna | Professor Emeritus, Australian National University |
| Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker | Campaigns and Advocacy Manager, Digital Rights Watch |
| Kevin Bonham | Election analyst |
| Kieran Pender | Acting Legal Director, Human Rights Law Centre |
| Malcolm Baalman | Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Public Health Association |
| Michael Cope | President, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties |
| Pandanus Petter | Research Fellow, Australian National University |
| Paul Williams | Professor, Griffith University |
| Ray Yoshida | Campaigner, Australian Democracy Network |
| Ryan Goss | Professor, Australian National University |
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This campaign is authorised by Travis Jordan, Earthtone Advisory, Greenslopes QLD 4120