Queensland

Queensland, officially the Federation of Queensland, is a country consisting of 73 districts, and a land area of 1,730,368 square kilometers. Queensland, along with Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and 13 other nations, is a member of the Commonwealth Realm, and is therefore ruled by Queen Elizabeth II. As of 2006, the population is approximately 3.9 million, however the population is rapidly growing, and the current estimates are close to 4.6 million. The capital, and the largest city of Queensland, is Brisbane. Since the Pacific War, Queensland has practiced neutrality in most conflicts in its region, and conflicts outside Oceania. Therefore, Queensland is not part of any military coalition in current global conflicts, but is an active member of numerous organizations, such as the Commonwealth of Nations, the APEC, the East Asia Summit, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and the Alliance of Independent Nations.

Queensland, in early 20th century, was the only colony on the island of Australia to not join the new Federation. Industrialists and workers in Queensland created a strong opposition, against joining a new nation with rival colonies such as New South Wales and Victoria. In 1901, Queensland was excluded from the creation of Australia, and in 1903, the nation of Queensland became a reality. Since then, the government has adopted the Statute of Westminster and the Queensland Act.

Electoral System
Throughout its history as part of the British Empire, and most of its history as a Commonwealth nation, Her Majesty's Government in Queensland had practiced a very popular voting method, first-past-the-post, also known as FPP. In 1994, the government changed the voting method to mixed-member proportional, or MMP.

Until the late 1990s, FPP was the dominant electoral system in Queensland. For decades, the party with the highest amount of votes won the general elections, and represented all of the citizens. The major parties, as a result, had much more representation in the Parliament and the legislature system than the smaller political parties. Leaders of smaller parties, along with university professors and experts on the topic, argued that the mathematics of first-past-the-post naturally rigged the elections in favor of the ruling parties. The system was also exposed to gerrymandering of geographical election districts, and the spoiler effect theoretically could allow smaller, minority movements to dominate the legislature, even though the majority of the population would disagree.

The majority of the Queensland population, unsatisfied with their parties being under-represented (or not represented) in the Parliament, or wanting prevent that from happening, voted to change the electoral system in the 1998 referendums. Near 85 percent of voters, when asked about the current system during the referendums, voted against retaining FPP for parliamentary elections. When asked to choose a new system, out of MMP, PV, SM, and STV, 63 percent chose the MMP system by majority. The Parliament officially changed the voting method in early 1999, five years after New Zealand, another Commonwealth nation in Oceania, had switched.

The MMP has been called by its supporters in Queensland as “the most democratic voting system” in the world. This is because, unlike the FPP, which led to only few parties dominating the government, the MMP encourages political diversity and allows much smaller parties to be represented along with larger parties.

In general elections, voters cast two votes. The first vote is for a candidate to become a Parliament member. Like first-past-the-post, the candidate that receives the most votes wins the electoral district where he/she ran. However, the second vote is for a political party. The party may be the same as the candidate’s affiliation, or another party. Based on the votes, the political parties are represented in the government as proportional to the results as possible.

Similar to New Zealand, the MMP system in Queensland also has a set of thresholds. These thresholds ensure that the parties represented are all still necessary, and in support by the public.

To be granted Parliament seats, a party must:

1. Receive at least five percent of the national vote in the latest general election, or receive at least eight percent of the national vote in the previous general election.

and/or

2. ''Receive at least one electoral seat in the latest election, or receive at least three electoral seats in the previous general election. A party that fails to reach either threshold will not be granted seats.''