Wednesday, 31 July 2024

Electoral Matters Committee

Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2022 Victorian State Election

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (17:19): The Greens welcome the Electoral Matters Committee report tabled yesterday, and there are a broad range of recommendations made, including how to make voting easier and more accessible for Victorians, which is something that I think everyone should be supporting. Importantly, recommendations have been made about the need for reform of the upper house voting system. Firstly, it recommends abolishing group voting tickets, which are fundamentally undemocratic. While it also recommends considering upper house reform, it finds that group voting ticket reform should not be linked to upper house reform. In other words, we do not have to wait for a referendum on upper house structure to get rid of dodgy GVTs.

Victoria is the only jurisdiction that maintains the outdated GVT system, and it is embarrassing that a state that prides itself on being progressive continues to allow it. My arguments against GVTs are in no way a criticism of the individuals who stand elected in this place – they have been legitimately elected under the current system and have every right to be here – nor are my arguments being made because I want to put an end to the button-push process that is still triggering to think about; it was like some sort of torturous game show as computers very slowly crunched through a complicated calculation created by GVTs to determine the outcome of different upper house seats. Our longstanding call for the abolition of GVTs is not personal, it is a matter of principle. We are not alone in this view. Integrity experts, psephologists and a large and growing number of members of the public have been demanding change. In its submission to the inquiry the Victorian Electoral Commission reported that it had been inundated with calls from the public about the undemocratic nature of GVTs. In a preferential voting system voters should control and know where their vote goes. Their preferences should not be determined by secret deals between parties – deals that are complicated and obscure and leave voters totally unaware of where their vote is going.

In this system a voter who would consider themselves ultraconservative can end up having their vote end up with a candidate who is ultraprogressive, who they never would have intended to vote for. It can also lead to completely absurd results. People can be and have been elected on less than 1 per cent of the vote, ahead of people who have received more than 10 times the number of votes. This has enabled some to profit from gaming the system. Infamous preference whisperers, such as Glenn Druery, have been able to charge a fee for helping to organise deals that warp the system further. Effectively GVTs create the opportunity for people to buy a place in Parliament rather than having to earn the necessary votes. GVTs completely disenfranchise voters.

I have spoken today already about the importance of public trust in democratic institutions, and having a fair and transparent voting system is a basic foundation for building that trust. It is well past time that Victoria caught up with the rest of the country and abolished GVTs. This can and should be done before the next election. Labor already knew this, but it needed further justification, and now it has recommendations from a parliamentary report from a committee that it chairs. We urge the government to heed the advice of the Electoral Matters Committee and give voters the power to choose who represents them.