There is a clear disparity between the support of a party, in terms of popular vote, and parliamentary seats won.
How representative are Australias elected representatives of the population as a whole? There is a clear disparity between the support of a party, in terms of popular vote, and seats won, in the results of the 2016 federal election.
A table that compares first preference votes each party earned to seats it won, shows two interesting points.
·First, the percentages for each party are closer in the Senate than they are in the House of Representatives.
·Second, the major parties fared much better in the House of Representatives than the Greens.
The first point is due to proportional representation being used to elect the Senate. If a party receives X% of the vote in a state, it should receive roughly X% of the senators.
The second point is due to the House of Representatives structure: that is, one member is elected in each electorate.
