Under such a system, which is used in most democratic countries, the candidate with the most votes wins, even if their overall tally comes from less than half of the electorate.

Australia's system, however, mandates that candidates secure at least half of all votes to win, either through the voter's first preference or subsequent preferences from other, unsuccessful candidates.

Eliminating preferential voting would have allowed the Coalition to hold onto Braddon, Cowan, Herbert, Hindmarsh, Longman, Macquarie and Mayo.

If the first preferences alone from each seat are counted, Labor would lose Adelaide, Griffith, Melbourne Ports, Moreton and Richmond to the Coalition, while Batman would fall to the Greens.

The results would give the Coalition and Greens a net gain of one seat each compared to the 2013 election, while Labor's count would fall by one.

Independents Cathy McGowan and Andrew Wilkie would retain their seats, as would Katter's Australian Party's Bob Katter.

The estimate is based on the presumption constituents would cast the exact same vote under a first-past-the-post system as they did under the current model.

Australian National University political science Professor Ian McAllister said first-past-the-post ensured a faster vote count, as well as the greater likelihood of strong government majorities.

But he added that such a system entrenched two-party dominance and often resulted in unrepresentative "manufactured majorities".

"All that would change would be a 2 or 3 per cent advantage to one party translating to, say, a 30 per cent advantage in terms of seats," he said.

"If you think it's better to have an exaggerated majority of seats because that makes a clear winner, you would certainly have a first-past-the-post system.

"If you think it's important an elected representative should win 50 per cent minimum of the vote in their constituency, then preferential is the way to go.

"I don't know why you would want to propose a first-past-the-post system because everyone's moving in the other direction."

At Britain's last general election, 333 of the 650 successful candidates for the House of Commons won their seat with fewer than 50 per cent of constituents' votes.

Meanwhile, at Canada's last election, 206 of the 338 electorates were won by candidates with less than half of the popular vote.

Preferential voting was legislated for Australian federal elections in 1918.

Attempts to introduce the system – also known as instant run-off, alternative or ranked-choice voting in other Commonwealth countries – has met resistance: 67 per cent of British voters rejected preferential voting for Britain's House of Commons in 2011.

In Canada, the centre-left Liberal federal government pledged that the 2015 election would be the last using the first-past-the-post system, with plans to introduce electoral reform during the current term of parliament.

However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure from the opposition Conservative and New Democratic parties to hold a public vote on the issue, rather than leaving the decision to politicians.

Professor McAllister said few surveys or polling had been conducted into Australians' attitude to first-past-the-post, with most instead gauging Australians' attitudes to compulsory preferencing, proportional representation or compulsory voting.