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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-06 Daily Xml
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STATE ELECTION

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (16:24): My question is again to the Premier. Given that 51.6 per cent of the state's population voted for a Liberal government at the March election, including a 15 per cent swing to the seat of Adelaide, do you now concede that you do not have a mandate to destroy the iconic Adelaide Oval and superimpose on the site, and on a significant area of parkland surrounding it, a concrete monolith; and will you cancel this project?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (16:25): I know we have different backgrounds in terms of our studies, and you would be aware that I do have an interest in football and have been to AAMI Stadium and its previous incarnation, Football Park, as well to more celebrated venues such as those down at Panther Park at Noarlunga.

However, as someone who has studied politics and as the father of the house, I should not need to remind members of parliament that, under the Westminster system that applies in Great Britain—in fact, voting I would imagine has already started—and in New Zealand and in Canada and in Australia, you win elections by winning a majority of votes in a majority of seats. This should not be a revelation. We are aware of the Playford era, but we are also aware of the results of the 1998 federal election.

On 20 March Labor was elected with a majority of seats, according to a research paper published by the Parliamentary Library on 1 April, with 48.5 per cent of the two-party preferred vote across the state. Under our system of government, one inherited from Westminster, the party that wins the majority of votes in a majority of seats in the lower house forms government. That should not be a revelation to anyone who is in this parliament, let alone anyone with a leadership position.

It is not the Labor Party's fault that, because of the system that we all voted for where there is a redistribution after each election in terms of the fairness rule, you did not campaign well in marginal seats and that you were let down by key shadow ministers in the last week. There is nothing new in governments being formed where the total notional two-party preferred vote to the government is something just less than 50 per cent. I understand that that was the case for John Howard in 1998, and there are many other examples involving both major parties.

South Australia's electoral laws have safeguards built in to avoid political bias. There is a requirement that the independent Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission draw boundaries to ensure that electorates have, within a narrow tolerance, an equal number of electors. There is also a fairness test. Section 83(1) of the Constitution Act provides that the independent commission 'must ensure as far as practicable' that the group that is the party that attracts more than 50 per cent of the vote will be elected in sufficient numbers to enable a government to be formed.

There can be no deliberate slewing or political interference in the drawing of electoral boundaries. The independent commission has adopted complex and sophisticated methods to meet, as far as practicable, this requirement. However, even the commission has acknowledged on a number of occasions that it is not part of its task to forecast how people will vote in a general election to be held several years after a re-redistribution.

The independent commission also concludes that circumstances affecting the outcome of a general election are not confined to the configuration of boundaries: the perception of voters in a particular seat, the quality and intensity of campaigning in particular seats, local issues and the stature of candidates—a whole range of things—are all factors the commission acknowledges have an effect.

Many things will influence the outcome. The parliamentary library research paper referred to earlier acknowledges the factors that may influence the outcome and return a government with just under 50 per cent of the vote. The research paper concludes that the 2010 result was not due to electoral bias but due to non-uniform swings. Specifically, the author concludes in that research paper that Labor ran 'the most successful defensive marginal seats campaign seen in South Australia'. Labor's focus on marginal seats was 'based on local issues and on effective representation by Labor sitting members'.

Conversely, the Liberals' campaign was presidential in style and leader-focused; and this at a time when the Liberal Party was gripped by disunity, division, mistrust and competing ambitions and egos. I might add—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: You prefaced the question; you knew what you would get. I might add that we had the better candidates in our sitting members. In short, this is not a failure of the electoral system; this outcome certainly does not reflect bias by the judges and others who were involved in the distribution. What it shows is the failure of the Liberal Party to win the hearts and minds of voters in the marginal seats, the working families in the north and south of Adelaide and elsewhere. The Liberals just were not, and are not, ready for government.

Now let us go to the other part of the question. We will proceed with the building of a new Royal Adelaide Hospital, and what I said to football and cricket—and I've been to both the cricket and the football on many occasions—the key thing we said to cricket and football was, 'When you make up your mind come and see us and tell us what you want.' There they were in the cabinet room—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: What an elite group in the cabinet room. We had Port Power, we had the Crows, the SANFL, the Cricket Association, we had the AFL, with Andrew Demetriou. They said (and I was there) that they wanted us to pursue with them Adelaide Oval—and that is exactly what we are going to do.

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