Group voting tickets for Victorian Legislative Council should be scrapped, Electoral Matters committe finds

The group voting ticket system for the Victorian Legislative Council — targeted by so-called ‘election fixers’ — should be ditched, a key parliamentary committee has recommended.

Victoria’s upper house voting system should be overhauled and the group voting ticket system scrapped according to a key parliamentary committee.

The parliament's Electoral Matters committee has called for Victoria to adopt a similar voting system to the Commonwealth’s Senate and to reconfigure the makeup of the upper house.

Handing down its report following an inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election, the committee found the current group voting ticket system led to results that failed to reflect voter preferences.

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.

Victoria is the only state to use a group voting ticket system. Picture: David Crosling

Ahead of the 2022 state election, the Herald Sun exposed the brazen rorting of the ugly system through the sale of seats by election fixer Glenn Druery.

The committee found voters did not always understand how their votes would be distributed when they voted and that final results did not necessarily reflect voters’ preferences.

“The Committee believes that change is needed,” it said in its report, which made 98 recommendations including establishing a further inquiry to specifically look at potential upper house reforms.

“Group voting tickets may result in some above-the-line votes for the Upper House being distributed in ways that voters do not expect or want,” it said.

“This can occur because many voters do not consult the group voting tickets before voting and, even if they do, some group voting tickets can be hard to understand.

“The Upper House voting system can lead to some candidates with small numbers of first-preference votes being elected based on the flow of preferences, while other candidates with more first-preference votes do not get elected.

“If voters have not chosen those preferences, this is problematic. Group voting tickets also lead to distrust in the system, encourage more candidates on ballot papers and enable ‘preference whispering’, which some people see as unethical.”

The committee also called for a wider overhaul of the voting system, including shortening the early voting period from 12 to seven days and holding late-night voting.

It also recommended new bodies be established to enforce electoral laws and host nonpartisan information about candidates, and a suite of changes to address poor behaviour.

Originally published as Group voting tickets for Victorian Legislative Council should be scrapped, Electoral Matters committe finds