ABSTRACT
In the 1853 Legislative Council debates, William Wentworth successfully proposed a nominated Legislative Council in full knowledge it could be controlled by threats of new appointments, ‘swamping.’ He successfully proposed an elected Legislative Assembly with a limited property qualification for voting, maintaining the weighting of seats towards more conservative country areas, and a requirement of a two-thirds majority to change the distribution. However only two years later liberals increased their share of the Legislative Assembly in the 1856 elections. ‘Slippery’ Charles Cowper replaced the limited property qualification for the Legislative Assembly with votes for all men. The nominated Legislative Council continued until 1934. The two-thirds provision was repealed.
