Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Electoral Matters Committee

Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2022 Victorian State Election

Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (10:42): It sounds like the member for Gippsland South has been waiting Everlong for that response.

Members interjecting.

Gary MAAS: Okay. Thank you. The committee report that I would like to speak to was tabled at the end of last month and is in relation to the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election. At the outset I would like to commend the committee chair, the committee and the secretariat on producing such a comprehensive report. The 2022 election in terms of my personal experiences of going through that election campaign formed a part of a submission that I made to this inquiry, and it was in relation particularly to the safety of candidates and their campaign teams during particularly that pre-poll period. I would like to say, though, that I do believe that the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) and VicPol did a tremendous job in administering and enforcing some rules around the election, but as we know, there is always room for improvement in these matters.

The report itself covers many areas that the committee looked to. Looking at election timelines was one area, and we all know that the changing nature of work has altered the traditional weekly spread of hours that constituents are now working, so therefore the expansion of pre-poll before election day has really enfranchised people to vote, especially those with work, faith or family commitments on election day. It is a great principle, and it is one that should be continued and adhered to as it expands the opportunity for participation in our democratic system of government. Expanding that, however, should not mean that any candidate’s safety should be compromised, and it was really terrific to see that the report went into that. The report also looked into equipping the Victorian Electoral Commission with the staff that it needs, it looked at managing poor behaviour by candidates and campaigners, it looked at reforming the upper house voting system and indeed it made many recommendations and findings into those areas.

As I said at the outset, my submission to the inquiry was more in relation to how to manage the poor behaviour from particular candidates and campaigners. I was very happy to see that there were findings and indeed recommendations made by the committee to that end. Recommendation 10 from the report is that the government work with the VEC, political parties and other stakeholders to develop a legally enforceable election period code of conduct for candidates and campaigners. It also found that to effectively manage poor behaviour by candidates and campaigners the VEC or another suitable body needs to have powers to enforce electoral rules. These should include the ability to use a range of graduated responses to manage poor behaviour. It is also necessary for the behaviour of candidates and campaigners to be monitored to identify breaches of the rules.

Something that I am also very happy was picked up by the committee was this notion of registering campaigners before pre-poll is to take place. It should not be overly cumbersome for campaigners to register, but what it does mean is that if people are registered they are not anonymous. It means that there is an accountability mechanism for those people in the way they go about doing campaigning for the candidate that they are there supporting. As I said, it should be a quick process. I commend the report.