Democracy for Victoria?

Back in February I drew attention to the inquiry being conducted by the Electoral Matters Committee of the Victorian parliament into the state’s upper house electoral system – specifically, into what changes (if any) should be made as a consequence of the abolition of group voting tickets (GVTs), which the committee had recommended in its previous report. It’s taken a while, but the report of that inquiry has just been released: you can download it here.

The time taken wouldn’t be unreasonable if the committee had produced a fully worked-out plan for constitutional change. But it hasn’t. Rather it’s declared the task to be too hard, and called for “an independent, inclusive process to guide deliberation on broader structural reform,” which it suggests (somewhat optimistically) “would create the space for meaningful dialogue and reasoned compromise.”

That’s a guarantee that nothing will happen on that front for some time – certainly not until after next year’s state election. Even if a consultative process produces some sort of consensus, the best case is having something ready to put to referendum in 2028. More likely, the referendum would be held in conjunction with the 2030 election, meaning the change (if approved) would only come into effect at the 2034 election.

The good news, though, is that the committee has reaffirmed in strong language its view that the abolition of GVTs should happen immediately and not wait on broader structural change. “Delaying their elimination,” it says, “would further erode trust in the system.” Labor, Coalition and Greens MPs all supported this move; the only dissenter was the Legalise Cannabis member, David Ettershank.

Ettershank is right to say that abolishing GVTs without structural reform is an unsatisfactory outcome and will disadvantage minor parties. But the government’s dragging of its feet on this issue has left parliament with no good options: next year’s Legislative Council election has to be undemocratic in one way or another, and I agree with the committee in thinking that the option of retaining GVTs would be worse than the alternatives.

The committee also recommends that counting of upper house votes be changed to follow the weighted inclusive Gregory method in place of the current unweighted system. This is a sensible reform that can also be implemented straight away; as the committee says, it “would be a fairer system for counting the votes no matter what structure is put in place.”

So it looks as if GVTs will finally disappear from the scene. Although its tone at the beginning of the year was equivocal, it’s hard to imagine that the government would have let its members on the committee stick their necks out like this unless it really intended to go through with it. But it’s a disgrace that they have survived this long, and that Labor has, as the Coalition members put it in their minority report, had to be “dragged kicking and screaming to this position.”

And while the committee has punted on the question of further reform, it has produced a very valuable and even-handed survey of the various options and the arguments for and against them. It’s well worth a read, and it’ll be a good basis for future discussion should whoever forms government after next year’s election want to pursue it.

If you’re interested in pursuing my thoughts on the matter further, you can read my submission to the inquiry here.