From Gerry-built to purpose-built: creating fair and equal electoral districts in South Australia

This paper examines the Constitutional requirement of the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commissioners in South Australia. Elsewhere in Australia, and until 1991 in South Australia, the presumption has been that a redistribution of electoral districts would only be politically fair if the redistribution authority is blind to the political consequences of the boundaries it draws. The fairness clause reverses that presumption, and requires the Commission to take political values into account, in much the same way as the parties, commentators and political scientists have always done. The paper covers the process the Commission has worked out to put the fairness clause into effect. I'll also look at why the fairness clause was introduced.