Liberal government in 2021 fails in change to optional preferential voting for South Australian Assembly
Optional preferential voting would have meant voters wouldn't have to number all the boxes, from first to last, in preference of candidates for South Australian House of Assembly seats.
A change to optional preferential voting for electing members to seats in South Australia’s House of Assembly was blocked in the state parliament’s upper house, the Legislative Council, in 2021.
The change was proposed by the Liberal state government as an addition to a bill based on a review of election procedures by the South Australian electoral commission.
Optional preferential voting overturned the requirement that voters numbered all boxes in order of candidate preference, from first to last, on House of Assembly election ballot papers. This could reduce the part that the voting preferences from losing candidates played in deciding the winner.
The move to end optional preferential voting was strongly opposed by the opposition Labor party that considered it a bid by the Liberals to capitalise on their traditionally-stronger primary vote.
The Liberal government’s optional preferential voting move was unlikely to succeed with Labor and crossbench minor parties such as SA Best having the voting majority in the Legislative Council.
SA Best member of the Legislative Council, Connie Bonaros, told parliament that it was “not lost on any of us that this is now being debated almost 12 months to the day of the next election, despite the fact that we have had nearly three years to get here. It is the government that wants to stack the odds in its favour through the introduction of optional preferential voting, just in time for them to face the electorate again in 2022”.
