By Aisha Dow
Businesses should be banned from voting in Melbourne City Council elections, or the electoral roll massively expanded to include thousands of the city's permanent workers, new research says.
The report on democracy in Melbourne, commissioned by the Electoral Regulation Research Network, recommended only residents be allowed vote in the local government poll.
Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle.Credit: Justin McManus
The move would lead to a far more "left-leaning" council, it has been predicted, and prompt the overthrow of current Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle, a former Victorian Liberal Party leader.
Meanwhile, a second but non-preferred option could see workers in the city, of which there are more than 439,000, given voting rights.
"Why should someone who spends 40 hours a week [in the city] not get a vote, when somebody in Timbuktu who owns a small apartment and never visits gets a vote?" Melbourne councillor Stephen Mayne said.
Unlike other local governments in Victoria, Melbourne City Council automatically requires businesses to vote in council elections.
Corporations operating in Melbourne are allocated two votes. When a company does not appoint its own representatives, the council will automatically enrol company office-bearers.
You are also required to vote if you own a rateable property in the municipality, even if you do not live locally.
The lead author of the democracy report, Monash University Associate Professor Ken Coghill, said that giving votes to corporate entities and non-resident property owners was not democratic and rejected the idea businesses should have a vote because they pay rates.
"The cry of 'no taxation without representation' is false: it is not accepted for voting in state or commonwealth elections or in other democracies and has no greater justification in Victorian local government," the report said.
Excluding everyone but residents would likely slash the number of voters by almost 60 per cent, banning almost 41,000 non-resident owners, 20,000 company representatives and 4000 business occupiers registered in 2012.
The change is opposed by Mr Doyle and many others within local government including Municipal Association of Victoria chief executive Rob Spence, who argued that the current system achieved a good balance.
Mr Spence said a dominance of residential voters could see more focus on the amenity of living in the city, possibly at the expense of economic activity and development.
Cr Mayne said if only residents were allowed to votes "you'd immediately have [federal Greens MP] Adam Bandt as mayor and an anti-business left-leaning Green council".
"If it ain't broke don't fix it," he said.
Last year former federal Liberal MP Petro Georgiou recommended corporations in Melbourne be allowed only one vote, rather than two. The proposal had the support of most of the 315 people surveyed for the Melbourne democracy report, with only 13 per cent approving of the two-vote system for corporations.
There was little enthusiasm from those surveyed for a vote for commuting workers in the city, a move that could see council's "electorate" swell to more than half a million people.
And there is no evidence yet of significant pressure, from inside or outside the council, for reform of Melbourne's current voting system.
"At the moment I think what we're doing is sparking debate," Professor Coghill said. "I think it is something that simply hasn't been thought about and debated in Victoria."
Last year businesses in Sydney were given more power, with a controversial bill passed by the New South Wales Parliament granting them two compulsory votes in the City of Sydney elections.
The next Victorian council elections will be held in October next year.