‘A shadowy affair’: Push for probe to overhaul council elections
Momentum is building for a wide-ranging inquiry into vote tampering, shadowy political affiliations and flimsy donation rules at Victorian council elections amid complaints the process is rife with integrity and transparency failures.
The proposed probe would target at least six issues including the secretive donation disclosure rules, whether the recent shift to single-member wards disadvantages some candidates, and the unusual system that gives businesses and landlords double votes in the City of Melbourne.
A long queue for voting at Drill Hall in the City of Melbourne on the day of the postal voting deadline for council elections.Credit: Eddie Jim
Greens integrity spokesman Dr Tim Read said Victoria’s council elections “remain a shadowy affair” on finance, integrity and transparency measures.
“This can’t help but make people needlessly suspicious about local government when they can’t see who is donating and they can’t see party affiliations,” he said.
Read has co-signed a letter to Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Local Government Melissa Horne requesting an inquiry be held.
“This inquiry would be able to call key witnesses, conduct public hearings and the government would be required to respond to its recommendations within six months of the report being tabled, so they can’t just be ignored,” Read said.
While turnout was relatively high this election and matched the 2020 turnout – 81.47 per cent statewide – the Greens are particularly worried by data that suggests lower turnout in city areas with a high number of renters.
A spokesman for the state opposition said the Liberals and Nationals would consider whether to back the Greens’ inquiry proposal at a meeting of shadow cabinet next Monday.
The 2024 local government elections were the second to be conducted exclusively by postal ballot.
On the final day of voting, a handful of suburban voting booths – set up for people who lost or did not receive their ballots in the mail – were also inundated by hundreds of last-minute voters amid reports of hours-long waits and understaffing on Friday.
Proposed terms of reference for council elections inquiry
- The impact of the postal vote system on voting patterns, including the extent to which postal ballots may act as a barrier to the enfranchisement of certain groups (particularly highly mobile populations such as renters) and how these barriers can be overcome.
- Allegations of ballot theft and fraud.
- The impact of the change to single-member wards.
- The practice of including votes for non-resident landlords and double votes for business owners in Melbourne City Council.
- Transparency and integrity relating to council candidates, including but not limited to, a lack of real-time donation disclosures, and other local government transparency reforms, as recommended by the 2023 Independent Review of Victoria’s Electoral and Political Donations System b) Requirements for disclosing candidates’ party affiliations.
- VEC resourcing for council elections, including but not limited to: a) The adequacy of the election period timeline; b) Lengthy vote-counting processes and delayed disclosure of official results; c) Whether in-person voting venues were adequately distributed, staffed and resourced.
- And related matters.
The results were declared last week, two weeks after voting ended.
On the same day, the Victorian Electoral Commission announced it had discovered suspected postal-vote tampering in the Whittlesea and Knox council elections, sparking an electoral probe and a referral of the matter to the police. In 2020, there was an unrelated vote-tampering scandal in Moreland Council – now Merri-bek.
Voter feedback to The Age also showed many were unaware of their candidates’ true affiliations, having no knowledge of their current or past political party memberships.
Integrity concerns around council elections are not new. There have been multiple reports and inquiries recommending changes over the past decade including by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), independent democracy advocates and a report commissioned by the state government itself.
In Victoria – unlike in NSW, Queensland and South Australia – council candidates aren’t required to publicly disclose their major political party affiliations. The Age sought to shine a light on this by surveying all council candidates running in metropolitan Melbourne.
Candidates in Victoria also don’t need to make their campaign donations public until 40 days after elections are held. Only two of 11 lord mayoral candidates voluntarily revealed their donors during the campaign – Jamal Hakim and Greens candidate Roxanne Ingleton.
The City of Melbourne also has its own act of parliament – separate to other Victorian councils – that dictates election rules and hasn’t been reformed since 2001.
NSW Labor removed double voting rights for businesses in the City of Sydney last year, with the local government minister there describing the practice as “something of which North Korea would be proud”.
During his campaign, Lord Mayor Nick Reece said any change to the double business vote – which dates back to changes in the 1990s – was a matter for the state government.
But after winning the election, Reece conceded the legislation “needs a refresh” and this week told The Age he would “have more to say about that … in coming weeks”.
Reece did not say whether he supported the Greens’ push for an inquiry, nor what changes he believed were necessary to the City of Melbourne Act.
Head of ratepayer advocacy group Council Watch Dean Hurlston backed the Greens’ push.
He said he had major doubts over the capacity of the Local Government Inspectorate to be an effective watchdog on the sector as it had not released an annual report in two years.
“It appears that there is no integrity and accountability at all in the local government sector,” Hurlston said.
The state government was contacted for comment.
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