‘I’m a big believer in democracy’: Electoral reform on cards for City of Melbourne

The City of Melbourne’s unusual rules allowing businesses two votes in council elections could be wound back and candidates forced to declare donations before election day if Lord Mayor Nick Reece succeeds in convincing the minister for local government to commit to an overhaul.

The formal request, made by Reece in a letter to minister Nick Staikos this week, was triggered by a recent council resolution following a Victorian Electoral Commission report on the 2024 council elections which revealed Melbourne’s voter participation of 70.79 per cent significantly lagged the state average of 83.79 per cent.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece wants a review of voting rules.Credit: Getty Images

It comes after a campaign by The Age during Victoria’s local council elections in October last year which highlighted major inadequacies in the City of Melbourne Act 2001, which dictates election rules including that campaign donations don’t need to be made public until 40 days after the election.

The act hasn’t been reformed since 2001 under the Bracks Labor government.

Reece, on behalf of the council, has requested a full review of the act. The request explicitly asks for the review to consider banning donations from property developers and gambling interests as well as introducing so-called continuous donation reporting. It also seeks a review of the “appropriateness” of the current voter entitlements.

“I’m a very big believer in democracy. Democracy is a verb. It’s something that you do, and it’s something you need to keep working on,” he said.

Reece said the review should examine whether foreign property owners should still be given a vote, giving an example of a person living in “Shanghai, who has an apartment in Melbourne, but very rarely visits” and who may have a “low connection to the city”. In contrast, he said it was also worth reviewing how to better inform international students they are able to vote.

Melbourne’s CBD is chock-full of residents and businesses. Credit: Wayne Taylor

Melbourne is the only capital city in Australia where eligible businesses get two votes in council elections, while residents only get one. The NSW government in 2023 repealed a similar rule for the City of Sydney elections, with the-then NSW Labor local government minister describing the system as “something of which North Korea would be proud”.

During his election campaign, when other candidates were calling for the two-vote rule to be wound back, Reece would not be drawn on the topic, stating at the time it was a “matter for state government” and he also came under fire for refusing to reveal his unprecedented donations in real-time when other candidates did.

Reece said that while he supported real-time donations during his campaign he was “not in a position” to do it during the last election because he “didn’t have the reporting mechanisms or a framework in place”.

He claimed he “went above and beyond” in terms of openness, transparency and reporting in the last election by voluntarily committing to not accepting donations from property developers, gaming interests and tobacco interests.

“The same cannot be said for many of the other candidates running for lord mayor,” he said. As reported by The Age, Reece did accept donations from individuals with large property interests in the city, some with pending developments.

Any reduction in the voting entitlements of business which were introduced by then-Liberal premier Jeff Kennett in the 1990s would likely be fought loudly by Victorian Chamber of Commerce, whose CEO floated a request during the election last year to have business given even more votes at council elections, stating that the business vote was being “diluted” over time as the residential population grew.

During council debate on the motion, two councillors – Liberal Owen Guest and Philip Le Liu – pushed back on any suggestion of revisiting the rule with Liu suggesting it could be seen as “an attack on the business community”.

Guest also said the investments business made to the city warranted their double-voting rights, saying a move to change the status quo would “not improve the relationship between those voting at the council level and those paying the bills”.

Reece told The Age it was important businesses still “have a vote”.

“I think that businesses, shopkeepers, local traders tend to be some of the most engaged participants in our democratic processes at town hall,” he said.

There have been multiple reports and inquiries recommending removing the two-vote rule for corporations, including one in 2014 by former federal MP Petro Georgiou and another in 2015 by Monash University Associate Professor Ken Coghill, which recommended only residents should have a vote, as per state and federal elections.

The previous group of Melbourne councillors, including Reece, also unanimously passed two motions during their term calling on the state government to initiate a review – in 2021 and again in 2022.

Previous local government minister Melissa Horne was reluctant to move on reform when asked last year, while opposition local government spokesman Peter Walsh said the Coalition was “content” to leave the double voting rule “as it is”.

In a statement, Staikos’ office said: “The minister for local government has received correspondence from the lord mayor on this issue. We will consider his letter and respond in due course.”

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