How a rule tweak left hundreds of thousands of ratepayers unable to vote

Holiday-home owners are among hundreds of thousands of ratepayers who will miss out on voting for their local council due to a controversial change to the electoral system that removed the automatic right of non-residents to cast a ballot.

Ahead of statewide council polls next month, Victorian Electoral Commission data shows the number of enrolled voters has declined in most municipalities since the previous elections in 2020.

The number of non-resident-owner ratepayers registered to vote has slumped to about 38,000 – a fall of almost 90 per cent from about 355,000 in four years – across all councils, bar the City of Melbourne, where the rules differ.

Sue Tuckerman is among the many holiday home owners who had to opt in by August 7 for the October council elections.Credit: Joe Armao

Under changes to the Local Government Act, any ratepayer who owns a property or business in a municipality they do not also live in had to register by August 7 to have a say on polling day. Previously, these ratepayers were automatically registered. The changes also included the introduction of single-councillor wards and compulsory voting for anyone enrolled.

Statewide since 2020, there has been an increase of 277,141 voters to 4.6 million – yet the number of registered voters climbed in only 11 of 79 councils.

Increases have occurred primarily in growth areas such as Melton, north-west Melbourne and Wyndham in the city’s west. Some councils, meanwhile, have seen their electoral roll shrink sharply.

In Mornington Peninsula Shire, the total number of voters fell by almost 13 per cent in four years to 134,819.

The number of non-resident owner ratepayers enrolled in the municipality – which has a high number of holiday homes and second residences – has decreased by 82 per cent. On census night in 2021, 27.5 per cent of homes in the shire were unoccupied, compared with a state average of 11.1 per cent.

Sue Tuckerman is one of the minority of Mornington Peninsula holiday-home owners who did register to vote by the August deadline.

She and her husband spend half of every week at the beach in Blairgowrie, and the other half at their primary residence in Kew in Melbourne’s inner east.

Voting in both elections is a no-brainer, Tuckerman said, as she considers herself a politically engaged member of her coastal community. She is dubious about the opt-in system and how it will skew outcomes.

“As soon as you do the opt-in, you wipe out quite a large proportion who are too busy and have kids and haven’t got time to think about local elections,” she said.

Former Mornington Peninsula councillor Hugh Fraser splits his time between his homes on the coast and in the Stonnington council area in Melbourne’s inner south-east. He labelled the voting changes a “political fraud”.

The amendments enhanced the voting power of resident tenants, he said.

“It’s a further nail in the coffin of participatory local government democracy.

“Councillors and management are accountable to ratepayers and the community. If you chip away at [ratepayers’ ability to vote] or disincentivise them from participating in democracy, then it reduces accountability.”

Mornington Peninsula council candidate Andrea Allen was also critical of the level of communication with affected ratepayers about the enrolment changes.

“I feel like everyone who pays rates deserves to have a say in how rates are spent,” she said. “[Holiday-home owners] have as much love for this place as permanent residents.”

Fellow candidate Despi O’Connor believed the changes would influence election campaigns and results.

She said the peninsula’s non-resident owners and permanent residents had different needs. Holiday-home owners were generally more interested in waste collection and clean beaches than the housing crisis and aged care, maternal or child services.

O’Connor said all rate-paying business and property owners should get a vote, but still questioned the equity in allowing certain wealthy Victorians multiple votes across several councils.

“Maybe [the change] will help the local area because it’ll bring the election back to community politics,” she said.

Across the bay, in Surf Coast Shire, the total number of voters has decreased by more than 10 per cent, and enrolled non-resident-owner ratepayers by 86 per cent.

Leon Walker, a Lorne cafe owner and first-time council candidate, said many holiday-home owners had told him they would have liked to have registered to vote but didn’t have a chance to.

“It’s unfortunate they don’t get to vote. It will change the election,” Walker said. “They contribute to the community and whole town. Lots of them go back generations.”

Mike Bodsworth, a Surf Coast candidate and councillor of four years, said while the decrease in voters was significant, he felt all residents shared similar outlooks on the environment and small-town character.

“I’d expect the impact on key issues of the campaign to be fairly minimal,” he said.

Some inner-Melbourne councils with high levels of apartment development and strong commercial centres also had large drops in their number of enrolled electors.

In the City of Port Phillip, which includes St Kilda and South Melbourne, the electoral roll has contracted by 16 per cent, with 91 per cent fewer non-resident ratepayers.

Former councillor Marcus Pearl said he opposed barriers preventing rate-paying business owners and landlords from voting.

“If you don’t make it easy for people to have the democratic right to vote, it’s a travesty because we want councils to be accountable to those groups. It’s core to a representative democracy,” Pearl said.

A Department of Government Services spokeswoman said the changes to the electoral roll were made following recommendations to better align with the state system, clarify voter entitlements and achieve more-accurate council rolls.

She said that before the changes, Victoria was the only state where non-residential ratepayers had an automatic entitlement to vote.

“Non-resident ratepayers were frequently surprised to find that they could vote, and only around half voted in council elections,” she said. “The review recommended that voting be made compulsory for all those enrolled to vote and that voters not on the state roll be required to enrol on an applications-only basis.”

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said the changes were unnecessary and had caused mass confusion, resulting in many ratepayers being unable to vote next month.

“So poorly communicated was the change that the vast majority, who have for years simply had a ballot come in the mail, have today no idea that their right to vote has been taken from them,” he said. “When votes are stolen from people with such stealth, that is most definitely not how a representative democracy should work.”

All councils were required to send letters to ratepayers affected by the electoral changes.

Surf Coast Shire council chief executive Robyn Seymour said letters and alerts were issued in May with the application form, and she was keen to ensure all owners had the opportunity to vote.

A Mornington Peninsula Shire spokeswoman said its notices to affected ratepayers included reply-paid envelopes and websites for the application forms.

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