Senate voting explainer: what could change when Australians go to the polls?

Senate voting explainer: what could change when Australians go to the polls?

A polling official checks a Senate ballot paper. In 2013 New South Wales voters were presented with a ballot paper that was a metre long. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP


Malcolm Turnbull is pressing ahead with legislation to overhaul Senate voting laws, arguing it will empower citizens to make their own choices despite protests from numerous crossbench senators who feel they will be disadvantaged.

The proposals stem from a report by the parliament’s joint standing committee on electoral matters, which raised concerns about micro-parties “gaming” the Senate voting system through elaborate and secretive preference deals.
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So, what will change when Australians head to the ballot box to cast their vote? Here we explain the revamp and how it compares with the current system.

What is the current system to elect senators?

In a normal federal election, voters receive two ballot papers – one to decide who will represent their local electorate in the House of Representatives and the other to elect representatives for their state or territory in the Senate. The Senate voting papers are divided into two sections and allow people to express their views in one of two ways.

The simplest, and by far most popular way, is to vote “above the line”. This means people mark “1” for a single party or group and do not mark any other preferences. If their first choice falls short, their vote is reallocated to other candidates, but it’s not their personal choice. The party or group they vote for above the line decides the order of the preference flows, via “group voting tickets” filed with the Australian Electoral Commission.

If someone wants to control their own Senate preference flows, rather than leaving it in the hands of the parties, they must vote “below the line”. This requires people to mark the order of their preferences for all candidates standing for election to the Senate in that state or territory. This can be an onerous and time-consuming process that sometimes involves selecting more than 100 candidates. In 2013 New South Wales voters were presented with a Senate ballot paper that was a metre long. The text was small and the AEC had to provide voters with plastic magnifying sheets.

What are the main changes?

The big changes are to abolish group voting tickets, the party-submitted mechanism for determining how preferences flow for people who vote “above the line”, and to enshrine optional preferential voting.
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Senate ballot papers will tell people they can vote above the line by numbering at least six of the boxes in the order of their choice. They would mark their first preference with a 1, their second preference with a 2, and so on. Supporters of the plan say this will take preference flows out of the hands of “backroom operators” and give a greater say to individual voters.

What happens if people vote for fewer than six options above the line?

The legislation, tabled in the lower house on Monday, shows the new “advice” for people to number at least six boxes above the line is a recommendation and not a requirement.

Turnbull says if a person numbers only one square above the line, or marks fewer than six preferences, the vote would still be counted. This appears designed to allay concerns that the changes would lead to an increase in “informal” voting and disenfranchise some voters, bearing in mind that people have been told for years that they could just vote once on Senate ballots.

If someone marks their top preference and nothing else – and that group falls short of a Senate quota – the ballot paper is “exhausted” and there will be no preference flows to others. If a voter marks 1, 2, 3 next to their top three choices, the preferences would “exhaust” after the third choice falls short.

Are there any changes to the below-the-line voting?


Regardless of the planned changes to above-the-line voting, voters will still have the choice of voting below the line. They will be told to number all choices if they vote below the line. But the government says the legislation will “reduce the number of informal votes by increasing the number of allowable ‘mistakes’ from three to five, as long as 90% of the ballot paper below the line is filled in correctly”.

What about toughening up party registration requirements?

The joint standing committee on electoral matters also called for an increase in the number of members needed to apply to be a federally registered party, from 500 to 1,500. But the government did not put this measure in the legislation, citing a lack of parliamentary support. The legislation includes a ban on individuals holding relevant official positions in multiple parties.

Why is the overhaul so controversial?

Criticism focuses on what the changes might mean for the makeup of the Senate, which serves as the house of review on government legislation. The Liberal Democratic party senator for New South Wales, David Leyonhjelm, says it will be “extraordinarily difficult” for minor parties to win seats in the Senate, which would end up being dominated by the Coalition, Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon.
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Lenore Taylor
Lenore Taylor

Labor has been divided on the issue, with some senior figures fearing it will improve the Coalition’s electoral prospects in the upper house. But a spokesman for the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, says “it is not in the nation’s interest or our economic future to give the Greens party the balance of power in the Senate”.

Labor’s shadow special minister of state, Gary Gray, who served on the committee that recommended changes, called for reforms to “accurately translate the wishes of voters into winners and losers in the parliament”, but the Senate leadership, Penny Wong and Stephen Conroy, have vehemently opposed the changes.

Will it pass the parliament?

Yes. Even without Labor’s support, the government has the numbers to get it through the Senate thanks to the backing of the Greens and Xenophon, who say it will allow voters to decide their own preference flows.

How does the move affect timing for the 2016 federal election?


The bill has been referred to the joint standing committee on electoral matters with a reporting deadline of 2 March, paving the way for a debate and decision in the Senate before parliament rises on 17 March for the pre-budget break. The AEC, which is planning an education campaign, has said it needs at least three months between the passage of the legislation and an election to implement them.

In theory, that would still leave open the option of a double-dissolution election held in July, in which all senators would face the voters. But the government would have to dissolve both houses on the day after the budget is delivered to avoid falling foul of the ban on such elections in the final six months of a parliament, resulting in an unusually long election campaign.

The earliest date for a normal general election for the House of Representatives and half of the Senate is 6 August. Turnbull says he is “working on the assumption that the election will be held at the normal time, which is August/September/October”.
Does the bill affect the House of Representatives system?

No. House of Representatives ballot papers list all candidates for the local electorate and people will still have to number all squares in the order of their preference. Although parties routinely provide people with “how to vote” cards on their way into polling stations, these are merely recommendations.