Queensland Legislative Assembly

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The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral (single house) Parliament of Queensland (see Before 1922). Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system. The Assembly has 89 'Members of the Legislative Assembly', who use the letters MP after their name since 2000 (previously they were styled MLAs).

The 89 MLAs are intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate, however that has not always been the case (see Queensland's Gerrymander).

Contents

1 Recent events
2 Current distribution of seats
3 Before 1922
4 Queensland's Gerrymander
5 See also
6 External links

Recent events

By-elections took place on August 20, 2005 for the electorates of Chatsworth and Redcliffe following the resignations of Deputy Premier Terry Mackenroth and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Ray Hollis. Both formerly safe Labor seats saw Liberal members Michael Caltabiano (Chatsworth) and Terry Rogers (Redcliffe) elected.

Another by-election was held in the electorate of Gaven on April 1, 2006 following the resignation of Labor MP Robert Poole. Labor was defeated, with Nationals candidate Dr. Alex Douglas being elected.

Current distribution of seats

(as at declaration of April 1, 2006 by-election)

Party Seats held
Australian Labor Party 60
National Party of Australia 16
Liberal Party of Australia 7
One Nation Party 1
Independent 5

Party	Seats held
Australian Labor Party	60
National Party of Australia	16
Liberal Party of Australia	7
One Nation Party	1
Independent	5

(see detailed list)

Before 1922

The Legislative Assembly was the lower house of a normal Westminster style bicameral parliament. The upper house, the Legislative Council was contstituted in the style of a Senate. 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. In 1942 the plurality system was reintroduced until it was replaced in 1962 by the 'full preferential' form of the Alternative Vote. In 1992 this was changed to the optional preferential system currently used.

In 1922 the Legislative Council took the unusual step of voting to abolish itsef, leaving Queensland with a single-chamber parliament - currently the only Australian state with this arrangement.

Queensland's Gerrymander

Queensland, until the reforms following the end of the Bjelke-Petersen era, had a system where electorates in rural districts were created with significantly smaller numbers of voters than urban seats, in effect making the vote of a person from rural Queensland worth significantly more than a vote by a person living in the highly urbanised areas of Southeast Queensland. (See Gerrymander)

This system was put in place by the Australian Labor Party before the Second World War, but socio-economic and demographic changes associated with mechanisation and urbanisation led to a drift of working class population to the cities and a subsequent shift in the fortunes of the Country Party (later National Party of Australia), which represented the interests of and appealed electorally to rural landholders.

External links

[Current E-Petitions], currently online petitions for Queensland parliament