Victorian Legislative Council - Composition

Composition

Today the Council has 40 members serving four-year terms. They represent 8 electoral regions, with five members representing each region.

The system changed for the 2006 Victorian election, as a result of major reforms passed by the Labor government, led by Steve Bracks, in 2003. Under the new system members serve fixed four-year terms unless the Assembly is dissolved sooner. Each region consists of 11 contiguous Legislative Assembly districts with about 420,000 electors who elect five members of the Legislative Council by the single transferable vote. There are now 40 members of the Legislative Council, four fewer than before. The changes have introduced proportional representation. The opportunity was also taken to remove the Council's ability to block supply. The reforms have made it easier for minor parties to gain election to the chamber and possibly gain the balance of power, as opposed to majority control by a single major party.

The Legislative Council was formerly elected from 22 single-member electorates called "provinces". The members of the council sat for two assembly terms so two members (MLCs) represented each province, elected in rotation one at a time by majority-preferential (AV) vote.

The old system tended to favour the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia (often in coalition) over the Australian Labor Party and other parties. This caused many instances where a Labor-controlled Assembly faced an opposition-controlled Council — a rare occurrence elsewhere in Australia.