this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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Why does Australia still have 2 major political parties despite preferential voting? (fedia.io)
submitted 1 month ago by atro_city@fedia.io to c/australia@aussie.zone
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Thanks to everybody who responded to my last thread asking how the system works. I went in thinking Australia had Winner Takes All (WTA) or First Past The Post (FPTP) for parliamentary elections of the House of Representatives, but found out it does in fact have preferential voting.

As a European living in a democracy with lower houses / parliaments / houses of representatives that have proportional representation (multiple parties in parliament forcing requiring coalitions) allowing only a single tick per list on the ballot, it's a little strange to see the choice in Australia seemingly come down to two political parties. There are multiple groups here fighting for preferential voting and you guys have it yet look like the UK or the US when considering voting outcomes.

Why doesn't preferential voting not lead to plurality in Australia and more choice? Have there been efforts to change the system in such a way that plurality can be achieved?

Thank you for your insights! This is quite interesting to me.

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[–] RedTurtle@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Australia only has proportion representation in the Senate (upper house). Each state elects 6 senators based on the proportion of votes they receive.

In the House of Representatives (lower house) you vote for your local member. This is a vote for a single person per electorate via preferential voting. Therefore, there is no proportional representation in the lower house and smaller parties are unlikely to get any seats unless they have concentrated supporter bases (ie the Nationals are a rural party and only ever get seats in rural electorates).

Australia's 4 largest parties are the Labor, Liberals, Nationals and Greens parties (in order of popularity). The Liberals and Nationals are the two major conservative parties and typically form a Coalition together to govern. Labor typically can govern on its own but has also formed a coalition with the Greens in the past.

Due to its proportional system, the Senate has a larger number of parties represented. No government has had a majority in the senate in over 20 years (and even that was the Liberal and National Coalition government having exactly half of the senate seats).

In the latest election, Labor had a landslide victory but still won't have a majority in the Senate. Therefore, despite not having a formal coalition government, they will still need support from other parties to pass legislation.

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Australia’s 4 largest parties are the Labor, Liberals, Nationals and Greens parties (in order of popularity).

The Greens are much more popular than The Nationals. ~12% of nationwide first preferences at this election vs 4%.

[–] RedTurtle@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago

Fair call.

The Nationals do have more seats than the Greens but "in order of popularity" was probably the wrong wording.

The Nationals don't contest all seats and are also combined as the LNP in Queensland. Even so, they would be unlikely to get to 12% of the national vote if they did.