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Opinion

Do we really need an Upper House?

A power imbalance within the Australian Senate is proving to be a stumbling block in the legislative reform process

BY

n\I NOEL G DE SOUZA

The blocking ability of the Australian Senate was made clear in 1975 when the then Prime }.,finister Gough of Commons is taken for granted; rhe Prime lvlinister of Britain by traditiorr comes from d1e House of Commons However, the House of Lords, which i s considered as a house of review, can delay and modify bills sent from the House of Commons But it cannot reject money supply bills.

''To illustrate the need fo:r upper houses let us mke a hypothetical case. Consider if there are only Parliaments based on H ouse of Representative members. Then .imagine iJ there is o ne group of people which form a majority community say 6fty- fi ve per cent, in an unprecedented fashion.

Whitlan1 was unable to get bills passed by that chamber. That gave tl1e tl1en GovernorGeneral Sir John Kerr, the excuse to have him dismis sed Australia did not it would be possible for tl1at group to get aU tbe sears in Parliament and no seats for any other group, emnic or otherwise. This is what choose the Briti sh model of the as tbe Prime 11inister. The ,vottods that the Labor Par ty suffered at tl1e time are still

Simultaneously; Sir John Kerr appointed Malcolm Fraser

*House of Lords h appened in Na:;,j Germany where all minority groups were tyrannised. So, in some countries there could as the country raw.

Today, the Australian Senate is again seen as a smm bling block in t he legislative reform process by the new Liberal gQ\1ernment headed b y Tony Abbott.

Clive Palmer, whose Palmer is supposedly egalitarian in nature, and has no arise the situation that minoritie s n ever get representation in a Parliamen t. aristocracy

U nited Party is expected to gain the balance of power in the Senate, has said that he would b lock the legislative process unless the Government agrees to reform the manner in whicl1 elections are conducted.

There ate two countries where Upper Houses or Senates are currently causing problems for elected governments: Ausrralia and the USA. This sirnilarity should cause no surprise as the J\usrralian Sena te was based on the American model. Australia did not choose the British model of the House of Lords as d1e country is supposedly egalitarian in nature, and bas no aristocracy:

In Britain, d1e narnes of the two clmmbers reveal tl1eir nature: the House of Lords is a relic from the past when Lords (predominantly male) ran me country As a result, there still exist some memberships in that chamber which co uld be considered as archaic; this includes the 26 Lords Spiritual who belong to the hierarci1y of the Protestant A nglican Church.

Then d1ere are Lords Temporal whici1 includes hereditary Lords and others who have been given life peerages and have been nominated as bar ons and barorresses. The current Speaker in the British House of Lords is Baroness Prances Gertrude Claire D'Souza, a scientist wbo was nominated co tl1e House. She is of

''Let us take an example of a minority group seeking to find a voice in tbe Senate In the very unlikely event mat Indians in an Australian stare decide to field a candidate, they would first have to t hink of a sta re which has a substantial number of Indians, such as New South Wales. If almost all Ind ians in that State d o vote, then such a possibility exists.

Irr a democracy there will always be groups of cil±zens who form minorities Minorities can be groups o f people who are members of edmicities, workers, d1e poor, me disadvantaged, the political right and the political left. Several such groups put up candidates for election to d1e new senate and some, co d1e surprise of many, actually win seats.

The cur rent focus on the Senate is how its elections are conducted. This has been promoted quite forcibl y by Clive Palmer of Palmers U nited Party who will have me balance in that house. Some o f hi s demands should be practically feasible, such as marking ballot papers with ink and nor pencil, as is currently done. The next is that booths should be manned by a wide selection

''Some of (Palmer's) demands should be practically feasible, such as marking ballot papers with ink and not pencil, as is currently don

Indian origin. Anod1er well- known Indianorigin Bacon is Lord 13haji.

The House of Commons is, in contrast, an elected body made up of commoners. In Britain mere have been, over me la st few centuries, battles bel:\veen the l:\VO houses for dominance b y either one or me other house. To day the supremacy of d1e House of people and n ot by just military officers as Palmer says happened in Fairfa.'l where he is s randing for d1e H o u se of Representatives.

Senator N ick Xen o phon sugges ts that voters mark ballot papers below me line so that all preferences are marked. Currently, marking above the line transfers t he

''power of distributing preferences to the party marked above the line. Therefore d1e Labor and Liberal parties who got the largesr number of votes have had a disproportionate number of preference distributions. They can thus distribute preferences to parties which the voter had never intended.

The above suggesc:ions can be in1plemented without going to a referendum. Referenda have been notorious for their rejection b y rbe Australian people.

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