38-686: Michael Joseph Kirwan (26 April 1873 – 13 February 1941) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly . Kirwan was born at "Jinbah", Maryborough, Queensland , to parents Michael Kirwan, who was a sugar worker, and his wife Sarah (née Costello), both of whom had originated from County Tipperary , Ireland. He started his education at the local state school in Yengarie before his family moved to Brisbane and he continued his schooling at Petrie Terrace . He started his working career as an apprentice bootmaker in 1884, and in 1907 he joined
76-508: A "modified one vote, one value" system. Under this proposal, subsequently adopted, most electorates consisted of approximately the same number of electors, but with a greater tolerance for fewer electors allowed in a limited number of remote electorates. This plan is still in use today. Presently, 42 seats are contested in Greater Brisbane and 47 in the rest of the state. The youngest person ever elected to Queensland's Legislative Assembly
114-466: A ballot not correctly filled out but other systems allow a vote even if not fully and correctly marked to be used until the first mistake annuls the ballot. That was the case in federal Australian elections prior to 1998 (a Langer vote ) but after 1998 Australia classified those votes as informal (invalid). Australia now allows ballots to express less than complete preferences ( optional preferential voting ) for Senate elections but full preferential voting
152-530: A drift of working class population from rural and remote electorates to the cities. By the late 1980s the decline in the political fortunes of the National Party, together with rapid growth in south east Queensland meant that the zonal system was no longer able to guarantee a conservative victory. In addition, in 1988 the Federal Labor Government held four constitutional referendums — one of which
190-547: A fourth zone—a remote zone, comprising seats with even fewer electors. Thus the conservative government was able to isolate Labor support in provincial cities and maximise its own rural power base. On average, the Country Party needed only 7,000 votes to win a seat, compared with 12,800 for a typical Labor seat. The entrenchment of a Coalition government was also caused by socio-economic and demographic changes associated with mechanisation of farms and urbanisation which led to
228-405: A transferable-vote system like the single transferable vote (STV) or instant runoff voting (IRV), a ballot is initially allocated to the first-preference candidate but if the first preference candidate is elected or found to be un-electable, the vote may be transferred one or more times to successively lower preferences. If there is no lower preference available when such a transfer is applicable,
266-669: Is now configured in a U-shape away from the Speaker's chair with three rows of benches that have their own desks and microphones. As of October 2024, the LNP (Liberal National Party) has 52/93 seats and formed majority government within the unicameral chamber. As of October 2024, the composition of Parliament is: Senate House of Rep. Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Council Assembly Assembly Assembly Full preferential voting One of
304-542: Is still used in the instant-runoff voting system used to elect members of Australia's House of Representatives. The terms OPV and FPV are used mainly in Australia, in relation to elections at state and territory and Commonwealth (federal) level, which use proportional representation ( Single transferable voting /STV) or preferential voting (IRV). OPV is used in elections in the Australian state of New South Wales . It
342-652: The Labour candidate for the seat of Logan , he was easily defeated by the sitting member, James Stodart of the Ministerialist Party by 565 votes to 239. Ten years later, at the 1912 state election , Kirwan was nominated as the Labor candidate for the seat of Brisbane . He found himself up against the long serving parliamentarian, Edward Barrow Forrest , who had represented the seat since 1899. A close contest ensued, and Kirwan won by 2187 votes to 2150. Kirwan went on to hold
380-700: The Liberal National Party (LNP) has 51 of 93 seats and formed majority government within the unicameral chamber. Initially, the Legislative Assembly was the lower house of a bicameral parliament influenced by the Westminster system . The upper house was the Legislative Council , its members appointed for life by the governor , on advice of the government of the day. The first sitting, in May 1860,
418-608: The Queensland Tourist Bureau . He joined the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock as a member of the library staff in 1938 and retired later in that year. Kirwan married Katherine Swift (died 1945) at Tenterfield on 29 September 1912 and together had one son. He was the first president of the Surf Life Saving Australia (Queensland centre) in 1931-41 and was a member and office-bearer of
SECTION 10
#1732855289833456-459: 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 (previously they were styled MLAs ). There is approximately the same population in each electorate ; however, that has not always been
494-579: The 1940s and sought to divide the opposition. In 1962, it was replaced with full preferential voting, as the governing conservatives wanted to take advantage of a split in Labor. In 1992, this was changed to the optional preferential system which was used until full preferential voting was reinstated in 2016. After 1912, electorates elected only a single member to the Assembly. In 1922, the Legislative Council
532-457: The ACT mandate FPV but they reduce the number of informal (invalid) votes by adding group voting tickets "above the line" on ballot papers. These allow voters to select a complete party list prepared by one of the parties, instead of manually entering personal preferences marked for individual candidates "below the line". Ranked vote systems vary in that some cast aside, at the start of the vote count,
570-507: The Labor government was able to maximise its vote, particularly in its power base of the provincial city zone. With the split in the party in the late 1950s the ALP lost office and a conservative Coalition government led by the Country Party (later National Party ) under Frank Nicklin came to power, which, as discussed above, initially modified the voting system to introduce preferential voting, to take advantage of Labor's split. It also separated
608-594: The Queensland Irish Association. Suffering a cerebral haemorrhage , Kirwan died in February 1941. He was accorded a state funeral , to be presided over by Archbishop Duhig at St Stephen's Cathedral and proceeded to the Nudgee Catholic Cemetery . Queensland Legislative Assembly Opposition (36) Crossbench (5) The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of
646-575: The Republic of Ireland , and in Northern Ireland use OPV. The ranked-choice voting system used in Maine , United States, Instant-runoff voting , can be considered optional-preferential as voters are allowed to rank just one candidate. The system also allows voters to skip one ranking (e.g. marking a first choice and a third choice, but not a second choice). In that case, the next ranking would be advanced to
684-402: The ballot is said to be exhausted . FPV prevents exhausted ballots. On the other hand, FPV increases the risk of invalid ballots: the more numbers a voter is required to mark, the greater the opportunity for mistakes, by repeating or skipping numbers or skipping candidates. The Australian election systems used in almost all the state lower houses (all except Tasmania and New South Wales) and in
722-413: The brief and abortive rebellion against Premier Ted Theodore . He wrongly thought this would ruin his political career but on the 14 July 1924 he was promoted to Minister without Office and on 26 February 1925 became Secretary for Public Works, holding this position until his party lost office in 1929 . After losing his nomination in 1932, Premier William Forgan Smith appointed Kirwan as an official of
760-698: The case (in particular, a malapportionment system - not, strictly speaking, a gerrymander - dubbed the Bjelkemander was in effect during the 1970s and 1980s). The Assembly first sat in May 1860 and produced Australia's first Hansard in April 1864. Following the outcome of the 2015 election , successful amendments to the electoral act in early 2016 include: adding an additional four parliamentary seats from 89 to 93, changing from optional preferential voting to full-preferential voting , and moving from unfixed three-year terms to fixed four-year terms. As of October 2024,
798-419: The day to maximise its own voter support at the expense of the opposition. It has been called a form of gerrymander , dubbed the " Bjelkemander " however it is more accurately referred to as an electoral malapportionment . In a classic gerrymander, electoral boundaries are drawn to take advantage of known pockets of supporters and to isolate areas of opposition voters so as to maximise the number of seats for
SECTION 20
#1732855289833836-476: The entire ballot paper (rank all the candidates). Elections for all other Australian lower houses use full-preferential voting. In the New South Wales Legislative Council , semi-optional preferential voting has been used since 1978, with a minimum 10 preferences required for 15 seats before 1991, and 15 preferences for 21 seats since. Voters also have the option since 1984 of voting "above
874-478: The government for a given number of votes and to cause opposition support to be "wasted" by concentrating their supporters in relatively fewer electorates. The Queensland "gerrymander", first introduced by the Labor Party (ALP) government of Ned Hanlon in 1949 used a series of electoral zones based on their distance from Brisbane. Initially Queensland was divided into three zones—the metropolitan zone (Brisbane),
912-518: The line". In the Victorian Legislative Council , semi-optional preferential voting is used if a voter chooses to vote below the line. Voting above the line requires only a '1' being placed in one box, and group voting ticket s voting has applied since 1988. Around 1999 Melbourne's Albert Langer engaged in a campaign to assist voters to mark fewer than all the candidates but still have their vote not deemed informal and rejected. This
950-522: The malapportionment, Labor was rarely able to garner a higher percentage of the vote than the Coalition for most of this period. In 1989 Labor won government, promising to implement the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, including the establishment of an Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission (EARC). EARC recommended the abolition of the zonal system in favour of
988-417: The provincial cities from their hinterlands. The hinterlands were added to the rural zone, where new Country Party seats were created. As the divisions in the ALP abated in the early 1970s, and tensions in the conservative coalition grew, (thus reducing the advantage to be gained by the use of preferential voting), the conservative government, now led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen , modified the zoning system to add
1026-414: The provincial cities zone (which also included rural areas around provincial cities) and the rural zone. While the number of electors in each seat in a zone was roughly equal, there was considerable variation in the number of electors between zones. Thus an electorate in the remote zone might have as few as 5,000 electors, while a seat in the metropolitan zone might have as many as 25,000. Using this system
1064-478: The railways as a porter. Due to his strong vocal abilities, Kirwan made a name for himself as a train-caller. As an active member of the Australian Railways Union, Kirwan found himself as one of those at the centre of the 1912 Brisbane general strike , for which he was sacked after the strike came to an end. Kirwan's first attempt at entering Queensland Parliament came at the 1902 state election . As
1102-418: The seat for twenty years until he was disendorsed by his party in favour of Australian Workers' Union organizer, Robert Funnell , for the 1932 state election . A vehement anti-conscriptionist, Kirwan was an enthusiastic and dedicated politician and over the years he became a quality speaker and debater. He was appointed chairman of committees in 1920 and in 1924 was one of those elevated to cabinet during
1140-449: The voter are implicitly ranked lower than all numbered candidates. Some OPV jurisdictions permit a ballot expressing a single preference to use some other mark than the digit '1', such as a cross or tick-mark, opposite the preferred candidate's name, on the basis that the voter's intention is clear; other do not, arguing for example that an 'X' might be an expression of dislike. FPV may not be possible if write-in candidates are allowed. In
1178-492: The ways in which ranked voting systems vary is whether an individual vote must express a minimum number of preferences to avoid being considered invalid ("spoiled" or "informal" or "rejected"). Possibilities are: Ranked-voting systems typically use a ballot paper in which the voter is required to write numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. opposite the name of the candidate who is their first, second, third, etc. preference. In OPV and semi-optional systems, candidates not explicitly ranked by
Mick Kirwan - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-472: The working class from state politics. The Assembly was elected under the first-past-the-post (plurality) system 1860 to 1892. From then until 1942 an unusual form of preferential voting called the contingent vote was used. This was introduced by a conservative government to hinder the emerging Labor Party from gaining seats with minority support. In 1942 the plurality system was reintroduced. The Labor government then in power had seen its vote decline in
1254-639: Was Lawrence Springborg , former Minister for Natural Resources and Leader of the Opposition . In 1989, he entered parliament aged 21. The Queensland Legislative Assembly sits in Parliament House in the Brisbane central business district . The building was completed in 1891. The lower house chamber is decorated dark green in the traditional Westminster style. The chamber once featured central tables which divided two rows of elevated benches on each side. The room
1292-500: Was a way to use the vote as if under the optional preferential voting system. The Australian Senate voting reform of 2016 switched from full preferential voting to optional preferential voting. A minimum number is specified in the instructions on the ballot paper. Since in the past a single number '1' above the line was valid, that is still a formal vote even though voters are encouraged to rank six candidates. STV Elections in Malta , in
1330-464: Was abolished, with the help of members known as the suicide squad , who were specially appointed to vote the chamber out of existence. This left Queensland with a unicameral parliament—currently the only Australian state with this arrangement. From 1948 until the reforms following the end of the Bjelke-Petersen era, Queensland used an electoral zoning system that was tweaked by the government of
1368-503: Was for the adoption of fair electoral systems around Australia. Although the referendum did not succeed, it heightened public awareness of the issue. A large public interest non-partisan organisation, the Citizens for Democracy, lobbied extensively the Liberal and Labor parties to abolish the gerrymander and to make it a major issue in the lead up to the landmark 1989 Queensland election. Despite
1406-574: Was held in the old converted convict barracks in Queen Street . It consisted of 26 members from 16 electorates, nearly half of whom were pastoralists or squatters. Early sessions dealt with issues of land, labour, railways, public works, immigration, education and gold discoveries. In April 1864, Australia's first Hansard was produced. That year also saw member numbers increased to 32, and by 1868—as more redistributions occurred—the number grew to 42. Members were not paid until 1886, effectively excluding
1444-643: Was used in Queensland's system of instant-runoff voting from 1992 to 2015, when it was replaced by full-preferential voting. OPV was adopted in the Northern Territory in 2016. In both the Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Tasmanian Legislative Council , semi-optional voting is used, with a minimum number of preferences required to be expressed. There is no requirement to complete
#832167