Australian Multi-Member Multi-Constituency Elections

Fillard Rhyne fillard at hevanet.com
Fri Apr 17 09:37:57 PDT 1998


IHF> 1.	I don't believe there is any gerrymandering in
IHF> Australia (any longer), since in every jurisdiction the
IHF> electoral boundaries are now determined by processes that
IHF> are independent of the Parliaments.  In Tasmania for

Do you use the word "gerrymander" to describe both intentional
and unintentional disadvantages?  That is, if a single-member
district were unintentionally drawn to the disadvantage of a
group of people, would you call it a gerrymander?

If so, I would reply that gerrymandering is like the Christian
concept of original sin, in that it can't be escaped: _all_
single-member districtings discriminate against some group of
people, even if they are drawn by a random or impartial process.

I don't have a proof for the above statement; it's an opinion I
formed while creating some fictional examples of gerrymandering.

Fillard




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