Politics of Queensland - Idiosyncrasies

Idiosyncrasies

There are several factors that differentiate Queensland's government from other Australian states:

• the legislature has no upper house;
• for a large portion of its history, the state was under a gerrymander that heavily favoured rural electorates. This, combined with the already decentralised nature of Queensland, meant that politics has been dominated by regional interests;
• Queensland, along with New South Wales, operates a balloting system known as Optional Preferential Voting for state elections. This is different from the predominant Australian electoral system, the instant runoff voting system, and in practice is closer to a first past the post ballot (similar to the ballot used in the UK), which some say is to the detriment of minor parties.

These conditions have had notable practical ramifications for politics in Queensland. The lack of an upper house for substantial legislative review has meant that Queensland has had a tradition of domination by strong-willed, populist Premiers, often with arguably authoritarian tendencies, holding office for long periods.

In the past, the focus on rural and regional interests meant that the state was a National Party stronghold. The long-standing conservative coalition in Australia has recently been dominated by the Liberal Party, with the Nationals in a subsidiary position. The reverse is true in Queensland, with the Queensland division of the Liberal Party often fighting the Nationals for control of electorates.