A still closer parallel to the Country Party’s successful deployment of Prop-
erty but not Market was in Ireland’s Fianna Fáil. Founded about the same time
as the Country Party, Fianna Fáil was‘essentially a rural phenomenon’defend-
ing the rural periphery against the urban centre; a voice for‘small farmers and
petty bourgeoisie’against pastoralists; offering protectionism and cultural
conservatism, and enduring in the face of the de-ruralization of Ireland
(Dunphy 1995, p. 16). The triangle of Labour, Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael
that dominated Ireland for many years could be seen mirrored in the Labor,
Country, and Liberal Parties of Australia, but with the greater urbanization of
Australia so enlarging Labor that in Australia‘Fianna Fáil’and‘Fine Gael’were
forced into a defensive coalition. It might be argued that the formula of
‘Fianna Fáil’was so strong it disturbed even Labor. The mysteriousfigure of
Jack Lang—the Big Fella, of Labor but perhaps essentially alien to it—may
form a counterpart to De Valera—the Long Fellow—and another testimony to
the potency of the formula.
8.6 The Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission has been described as‘a rarity’(Brent
2009, p. 407) with regard to its independence, scope, and power.
The Australian Electoral Commission has many roles in the electoral sys-
tem. It is a keeper of the mysteries—only it actually understands how Senate
seats are decided. It is keeper of the faith—with active education programmes
at home, and missionary activities abroad. Above all, it alone decides the
boundaries of the seats in the House of Representatives. The Commonwealth
Electoral Act affords the legislature no right to annul the Commission’s deci-
sions, and ordains its decisions‘shall not be challenged, appealed against,
reviewed, quashed, set aside or called in question in any court or tribunal on
any ground’(Commonwealth Electoral Act, section 77).
The Australian Electoral Commission began in a more humble way in 1902,
as an ordinary branch of the Department of Home Affairs, with its methods
modelled on the electoral practice of South Australia that dated back to 1853.
The key innovation in that year was the transferal of the responsibility for
enrolment and the good conduct of elections from magistrates to‘returning
officers’; salaried clerks of the public service. The greater significance was the
appointment of William Boothby, who, from 1856 to 1903:
superintended every parliamentary election in South Australia, drafted every Elect-
oral Act, gave unshakeable evidence to every relevant inquiry and was thefirst of
the federal electoral commissioners to complete his rolls and electorates for the
Commonwealth. (Castles 1969, p. 196)William O. Coleman