§ Mr. NEWMANasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been called to the results of the use of the block vote, or scrutin de liste, in the last election of the Australian Senate; whether he can state for the information of the House the 858W amount of representation which was obtained by the minority; and whether these facts were before His Majesty's Government when it was decided to apply this method of election to the multi-member constituencies proposed in the Government of Ireland Bill for the Irish House of Commons?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI understand that the Commonwealth Electoral Act provides that in elections for the Australian Senate the voter shall vote for the full number of candidates to be elected. The minority obtained no representation at the last election. All relevant considerations were before His Majesty's Government when framing the proposals in the Bill.