Australia has a strong history of innovation at the electoral level. The states have been the incubators for this innovation with Tasmania being one of the leaders. The Robson Rotation gets it name from Neil Robson's bill to the Tasmanian Assembly in 1979. The Tasmanian Assembly uses a preference voting system. One of the inefficiencies of the preference system that skews the outcome is the "donkey vote". The Robson Rotation limits the effect of this.
Random Ordering The Robson Rotation requires that candidates be ordered randomly on a ballot paper. This gives voters pause, as they search for their preferred candidates and then order them accordingly. It also stops the skewing of electoral outcomes by donkey voters. This is where a voter orders the candidates by top to bottom or bottom or top. Previously candidates that were on the top of the ballot would get a boost to their electoral fortunes as donkey voters rated them with high preferences.
The relevant section from the
Tasmanian Electoral Act that contains the statutory language supporting the Robson Rotation;
89. Election with poll
(1) If the number of candidates for an election exceeds the number required to be elected, the returning officer for the division concerned is to announce that a poll will take place on the day fixed by the writ for that election.
(2) As soon as practicable after the announcement of candidates under section 87, the returning officer is to -
a) for the purposes of Schedule 3 determine, by an approved method, the random order in which the names of candidates are to appear in each column on the first batch of ballot papers; and
(b) in the case of an Assembly election, for the purposes of section 97(6) determine, by an approved method, the random order in which the columns mentioned in section 97(2) and (3), if any, are to appear on the ballot papers.
Another positive outcome of the Robson Rotation is that it minimizes the effect of party "how to vote" cards. The voter still has to deliberate and find the candidates on the ballot, rather than just following a pattern, or an above the line vote. Just for good measure, the Tasmanian Electoral Act also includes penalties for handing out "how to vote" cards within 100 metres of an Electoral Booth;
177. Offences within 100 metres of polling place
A person must not, within 100 metres of, or within, a polling place which is open for polling -
(a) canvass for votes; or
(b) solicit the vote of an elector; or
(c) induce or attempt to induce an elector not to vote for a particular candidate or particular candidates.
These innovations have served to defray the influence of parties on elections. Tasmania does not hold by-elections either. If an Assembly seat is vacated for whatever reason, the preferences for the candidates in the previous election are consulted. The candidate with the most number of votes then occupies that seat. Consequently parties often have several members contesting seats. This defuses the number of votes for the party as well, as block voting for a party is not guaranteed and those that choose to vote along party lines still have a choice of different candidates within their preferred party.
Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory uses the Robson Rotation on its ballot papers. The Robson Rotation was entrenched, by name, in the
Hare-Clark Entrenchment Act of 1994;
(g) ballot papers shall be-
(i) prepared and collated in accordance with the method known as the Robson Rotation; and
The Hare-Clark system of voting is a single transferable vote (SVT) named after Englishman, Thomas Hare and Tasmanian,
Andrew Inglis-Clark. Tasmania has been using the Hare-Clark voting system since 1909. Andrew Inglis-Clark's other achievements include writing the original draft of the Australian Federal Constitution.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
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Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
