Australian Election 2022 – Federal Election

Australian Election

On May 21, 2022, the Australian election will be held to elect members of Australia’s 47th Parliament. For the fourth time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the existing Liberal–National Coalition government are seeking re-election. The opposition, led by Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese, will battle them. Other smaller parties and independent candidates, like as the Greens, United Australia, One Nation, and other small parties, will run in the election. All 151 seats in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, and 40 of the 76 seats in the upper chamber, the Senate, will be up for election.

State of Electorates in Australian Election

The Australian Election Commission must determine the number of members to which each State and Territory is entitled one year following the first sitting day of a new House of Representatives. A redistribution will be required if the population of any state changes. A redistribution will be postponed if it is scheduled to begin within one year of the House of Representatives’ expiration.

The findings were based on demographic data released by the Australian Election Bureau of Statistics on June 18, 2020, from December 2019. The population counts revealed that the House of Representatives would return to 150 seats, with Victoria gaining 39 seats and Western Australia (15) and the Northern Territory (1) losing their seats.

The withdrawal of the second seat for the Northern Territory from the determination generated controversy. Senators Malarndirri McCarthy and Don Farrell of the Labor Party proposed a private senator’s bill to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters guaranteeing the Northern Territory at least two seats in the House of Representatives. In July 2020, election analyst Antony Green advised that the electoral representation entitlements for the territories be determined using the “harmonic mean technique” to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

Green also blogged about the history of representation and its applications to states and territories in light of the 2020 redistribution. His arguments were persuasive. In October 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack announced that the government and opposition would work together to reverse the AEC and maintain the current amount of representation in the Northern Territory. Senator Mathias Cormann claimed that the territories will receive a two-seat minimum, although the mechanism by which this will be accomplished is uncertain. Despite the fact that the ACT’s level of representation was not challenged, mandating a minimum number of seats for the Northern Territory but not the Australian Capital Territory was deemed inequitable. Similarly, a 2003 study warned against creating mandatory minimums.

“Enacting a harmonic mean for allocating seats among states and territories, with appropriate public explanation to build awareness for the reform,” the Joint Standing Committee concluded in Australian Election The Electoral Amendment (Territory Representation) Act, which alters the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to utilize the harmonic mean approach to establish representative rights for territories compared to states, was passed by Parliament on December 9, 2020. As a result, despite the fact that no minimum level of representation has been imposed, the Northern Territory will retain two seats in the House of Representatives in the next election.

In March 2021, the Australian Electoral Commission proposed a redistribution that included the elimination of the Division of Stirling in Western Australia, the creation of the new Division of Hawke in Victoria (named after former Prime Minister Bob Hawke), and the renaming of the existing Division of Corangamite to the Division of Tucker (in honour of Margaret Tucker, “a Yorta Yorta woman, for her significant work to create a more equal and understanding society for Aboriginal people”). The Australian Election Commission confirmed the breakup of Stirling and the formation of Hawke in June 2021, while Corangamite would not be renamed Tucker owing to concerns that it would be vandalised as “Fucker.”

Voter registration of Australian Election

It is necessary to register all eligible voters. Within eight weeks after moving or turning 18, voters must notify the AEC. The electoral rolls are closed to new enrolments or revisions of information a week after the writs for election are issued. Enrolment is voluntary for 16 and 17-year-olds, although they cannot vote until they reach 18. Applicants for citizenship in Australian Election can also apply for provisional enrolment, which takes effect after citizenship is granted. The Australian election had 17,228,900 people registered to vote, which indicates that 96.8% of all eligible Australians were represented on the electoral roll.

Australian Election date

• “The Governor of any State may direct writs to be issued for the election of Senators for that State,” says Section 12 of the Constitution.
  Senators are elected for a term of twelve months before their seats become empty, according to Section 13 of the Constitution.
• “Every House of Representatives must remain for three years from the first sitting of the House, and no longer, but may be dissolved sooner by the Governor-General,” according to Section 28 of the Constitution.
• The 46th Australian Parliament began on 2 July 2019 and will end on 1 July 2022.
• “The writs shall be issued within ten days from the expiry of a House of Representatives or from the proclamation of a dissolution thereof,” says Section 32 of the Constitution.  The 11th of July 2022 is ten days after the 1st of July 2022.
• “The date established for the nomination of the candidates should not be fewer than 10 days nor more than 27 days following the date of the writ,” says Section 156(1) of the CEA.
• The 7th of August 2022 is twenty-seven days after the 11th of July 2022.
• “The date determined for the polling shall not be less than 23 days nor more than 31 days from the date of nomination,” says Section 157 of the CEA.
• Thirty-one days after the 7th of August 2022, on a Wednesday, is the 7th of September 2022.

Dissolution of parliament

Morrison called the election on April 10, 2022, after meeting with the Governor-General and recommending that Parliament be prorogued and the House of Representatives be dissolved. The Governor-General accepted Morrison’s ideas, as is common in Australia’s Westminster style of government. After Parliament was prorogued, the House of Representatives was dismissed the next morning.