Victorian Labor open to abolishing ‘undemocratic’ upper house voting despite Premier’s hesitancy
Victorian Labor say they are open to abolishing the state’s “undemocratic” upper house voting system, despite hesitancy from the Premier.
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Victorian Labor is open to abolishing the state’s “undemocratic” group voting ticket loophole used to elect upper house politicians, despite Premier Daniel Andrews remaining noncommittal.
The parliament’s Electoral Matters committee, which is holding an inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election, heard that reform of the controversial and “outdated” upper house voting system is a key priority for political parties.
The group voting system means voters who number one box at the top of their ballot paper, rather than at least five boxes at the bottom, lose control of where their preference votes are directed if their favoured candidate is knocked out of the race.
This has resulted in a number of candidates with very small primary votes being elected to the parliament and ultimately beating competitors who received more votes.
Victoria remains the only state to still use the system, with the Andrews government facing pressure to scrap it entirely.
Ahead of last year’s state election, the Herald Sun exposed the brazen rorting of the ugly system through the sale of seats by election fixer Glenn Druery.
Mr Druery – who has been dubbed as the “preference whisperer” – claimed Victoria hadn’t moved to change the law because Labor benefited from the deals.
On Thursday, outgoing Labor state secretary Chris Ford told the inquiry that the party was open to hearing alternative voting options.
“We, in principle, support the abolition of group voting tickets but the confirmation of that in principle support would expend on the options that were presented, and an assessment that what it was being replaced with was better than the current system,” he said.
Labor assistant state secretary Cameron Petrie added: “We don’t make public policy down at the Secretariat. I would have thought it’s more of a matter for our colleagues in the government.”
The Premier on Thursday said he would await recommendations from the committee, but warned political parties calling for an end to group voting tickets could be doing so because they may benefit from a different system.
“When politicians rail against a set of rules that are there to determine who gets elected to what, they’re sometimes, just sometimes, quite heavily motivated by wanting to get more of their people elected,” he said.
“Sometimes politicians are all about politics, and sometimes political parties are all about being bigger, not smaller.”
Mr Andrews added: “I think it’s important to separate the conduct of some from the actual system. There are ways in which you could prevent that conduct and not necessarily change the way people cast their ballots and change the way the votes are counted. “
Opposition leader John Pesutto said the Liberal Party supported an end to group voting tickets.
Victorian Greens integrity spokesman Tim Read said nothing about the system is fair or democratic, and said reform must happen before the 2026 state election.
“The reality is, the Victorian Labor government has been happy to maintain the status quo while it means an upper house crossbench filled with micro-parties that are easy to divide and conquer,” Dr Read said.
“When a candidate is getting elected over someone with ten times the vote, you know something is wrong.”
The Animal Justice Party, whose MP Georgie Purcell was elected after receiving just 1.53 per cent of the primary vote in the Northern Victoria region, admitted the system worked favourably.
“We benefited from that situation in that way … That’s the system,” the party’s national psephology manager, Craig Kealy, told the committee.
Ms Purcell, who received the lowest primary vote of all politicians, on Thursday said the Animal Justice Party has long supported electoral reform.
“We don’t like the system that we’re forced to operate under and to make the decisions that we do that ultimately got me elected,” she told ABC.
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