The Australian Financial Review is reporting today that despite the election not being quite decided yet, Labor and the Coalition are considering joining forces to ensure that Pauline Hanson and her likely fellow One Nation senators are only given a three-year term in the Senate.
Howzat work?
Here’s the skinny. Federal senators are normally elected for six year term, and half of them are supposed to be up for election every three years. So when there’s a double dissolution election, half of the fresh new senators will only get a three-year term before being thrown back into the election meat-grinder again.
The Constitution makes it very, very clear that this must be the case. But it doesn’t actually stipulate how we’re meant to decide who gets a three-year term and who gets a six-year term. Basically, the Senate decides how it’s going to be worked out. In 1983 and 1987, it was decided based on who got the most votes.
But there’s another way they can elect to do it – the countback provision. In this method, each senator would be ranked as if this was your regular, run-of-the-mill election, and their vote counted against the 14.28% threshold. With the current Senate reforms, it’ll be pretty hard for Hanson to meet that number. Or Derryn Hinch. Or a couple of Nick Xenophon Team senators. Cheeky.
The AFR reckons that sources claim both parties have “turned their minds to the question” of teaming up to make that happen and force One Nation to face re-election in 2019. The combined power of Labor and the Coalition in the Senate could absolutely make it happen.
Fingers crossed. This election is cooked, hey?
Source: AFR.
Photo: Getty Images.
