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The Australian House of Representatives is elected from 150 single-member districts called Divisions. They are also commonly known as electorates or seats. The British term "constituencies" is rarely used.
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Apportionment
Divisions are apportioned among the states and territories of Australia in accordance with section 24 of the Australian Constitution and the Electoral Act[1] Generally, apportionment among the states and territories is based on population, with the following provisos:
- Each original state must have at least 5 Members of Parliament (a provision that gives Tasmania more representation than its population would suggest)
- The Northern Territory is allocated slightly more representation under recent legislative amendmentscitation needed
- The Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives should be approximately twice as large as the Senate
Within each state and territory, boundaries must be redrawn in a process known as redistribution at least once every 7 years, or when the state's entitlement to the number of MPs change. Boundaries are drawn by Redistribution Committee, and apportionment within a state is on the basis of the number of enrolled voters rather than total residents.
Within a state or territory, the number of enrolled voters in each Division can not vary by more than 10% from the average across the state, nor can the number of voters vary by more than 3.5% from the average projected enrolment three-and-a-half years into the future.
Naming
The Divisions of the House of Representatives are unusual in that many of them are not named after geographical features, as is the case in most other legislatures around the world. Most Divisions are named in honour of prominent historical people, such as former politicians (often Prime Ministers), explorers, artists and engineers.
In some cases where a Division is named after a geographical locality, the connection to that locality is sometimes tenuous. For instance, the Division of Werriwa, created in 1901, was named after the Aboriginal word for Lake George in the Canberra region. However, Werriwa has not contained Lake George for many decades, and has steadily moved some 200km north to the south-western suburbs of Sydney over the past century.
The redistribution, creation and abolition of Divisions is the responsibility of the Australian Electoral Commission. Some of the criteria the AEC use when naming new Divisions are listed below:[2]
- Divisions should be named after deceased Australians who have rendered outstanding service to their country, with consideration given to former Prime Ministers
- The original names of Divisions proclaimed at Federation in 1901 should be retained
- Geographical place names should be avoided
- Aboriginal names should be used where appropriate
- Names of state electoral districts should not be duplicated
List of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions, 2007-2010
The maps below show the Division boundaries as they existed at the 24 November 2007 House of Representatives election. The maps show each Division as being held by a particular party.
New South Wales
There are 49 Divisions:
Victoria
There are 37 Divisions:
Queensland
There are 29 Divisions:
Western Australia
There are 15 Divisions:
- Brand
- Canning
- Cowan
- Curtin
- Forrest
- Fremantle
- Hasluck
- Kalgoorlie
- Moore
- O'Connor
- Pearce
- Perth
- Stirling
- Swan
- Tangney
South Australia
There are 11 Divisions:
Tasmania
There are 5 Divisions:
The Territories
Australian Capital Territory
There are 2 Divisions:
- Canberra
- Fraser (also covers Jervis Bay Territory)
Northern Territory
There are 2 Divisions:
- Lingiari (also covers Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands)
- Solomon
Abolished Divisions
These Australian electoral divisions no longer exist.
See also
- For a list of members of the current House of Representatives and the electorates they represent, see List of members of the Australian House of Representatives.
- For a description of how the House of Representatives is elected, see Australian electoral system.
External links
- For an electoral history of each Division since Federation in 1901, see Adam Carr's Electoral Archive: Index of House of Representatives Divisions 1901-2001
Notes
- ^ Australian Electoral Commission.Research Report 4 - Australian Federal Redistributions 1901-2003. Accessed May 5, 2008.
- ^ Australian Electoral Commission. Guideline for Naming Divisions. August 3, 2007. Accessed May 5, 2008.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 24 September 2008, at 22:33.
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