Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories

In these parliaments, a lower house (often known as the legislative assembly) was composed of multiple single-member, geographical constituencies.

In Queensland and Western Australia the vote was specifically denied to people of indigenous Australian descent.

Despite these forms of discrimination, the electorates of Australian lower houses were, paradoxically, socially broader than those existing in most other countries at the time.

The following year Queensland became the last state to lift restrictions on people voting, based on indigenous descent.

The New South Wales Legislative Assembly has 93 members elected for four-year terms in single-member electoral districts.

The New South Wales Legislative Council has 42 members elected for eight-year terms, one-half of the body being elected every four years, using the single transferable vote method, a form of preferential voting for use with proportional representation.

Nomination as a candidate requires the following:[6] The Northern Territory Legislative Assembly has 25 members elected for four-year terms from single-member constituencies under the same preferential form of the Alternative Vote used for the House of Representatives.

The Legislative Assembly of Queensland has 93 members elected for fixed four-year terms from single-member constituencies using full-preferential voting.

The Queensland Legislative Council, which consisted of members nominated by the Governor, was abolished by a Labor government in 1922.

The South Australian House of Assembly has 47 members elected under the preferential Instant-runoff voting (IRV) system.

The South Australian Legislative Council has 22 members elected under the preferential single transferable voting system.

[9] The ECSA is responsible for a mandatory redistribution of House of Assembly boundaries before each election to ensure one vote one value.

[10] Nomination as a candidate requires the following: Elections in Tasmania are conducted by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

Tasmania is the only State to use proportional representation to elect its lower house, although it is also used in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Tasmanian Legislative Council (the upper house) has 15 members, each representing one of 15 electoral divisions.

Legislative Council elections use the same full preferential voting system used for the federal House of Representatives.

Until recently Tasmania required voters to be residents of the State for at least six months before they were eligible to enrol and vote.

Nomination as a candidate requires the following: Elections in Victoria are conducted by the Victorian Electoral Commission.

From 1986 to 2009, the Western Australian Legislative Council had 34 members elected for four-year terms from six multi-member constituencies known as regions, by STV proportional representation.

This is slightly different from the "Countback" method used to fill vacancies in the Tasmanian House of Assembly.

[13][14] Nomination as a candidate requires the following:[15] Note (1) : Queensland and the two territories are unicameral, and do not have an upper house.

Note (2) : Under inclusive Gregory method, transfer value equals (surplus / total papers received by the elected candidate).