Electoral Matters Committee
2nd December 2025
David Ettershank – Legalise Cannabis Victoria (LCV)
The 2025 Inquiry into Victoria’s Upper House electoral system followed a recommendation from the Electoral Matters Committee (EMC) in its 2024 Inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election.
While both Inquiries provided many useful insights into the 2022 election and broader electoral issues, and many of the recommendations will serve to improve democracy and the voting process, there is also an insidious underlying theme: frustrate the growth and preferably neuter the smaller political parties. The motive, as noted in the 2025 report is clear:
“the level of support for smaller parties (that is, parties other than the Greens, Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals) has increased from 9.0% of first-preference votes (in 2006) to 27.2% (in 2022)”
This tripling in electoral support for smaller parties and Independents in Victoria, has been reflected nationally and has been at the expense of the “Old Parties” (Labor, Liberal, Nationals and Greens) who have seen their primary vote either decline or, at best, plateau.
As discussed below, through both Inquiry processes, the Old Parties, normally at each others throats, have demonstrated an extraordinary unity of purpose in supporting a series of changes that will supress the smaller parties.
The Inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election
In my 2024 Minority Report to the Inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 Victorian state election, I identified recommendations of the EMC that would significantly reduce the ability of citizens to form and operate smaller parties and for those parties to compete in elections:
- increase the minimum number of members required for party registration from 500 to 750;
- increase the number of people required to support someone to run as an independent candidate for the Lower House from six to 50 people;
- increase the requirement to have a completed party registration lodged with the VEC, 180 days prior to a scheduled election (currently 120 days);
- abolish Group Voting Tickets (GVTs) without requiring a concurrent change to electoral regions. This complex issue is discussed further below, but in short, the impact of this change would be to effectively eliminate smaller parties and independents from the Legislative Council.
The beneficiaries of these changes would be the “Old Parties”, and they voted accordingly. Note: The Electoral Matters Committee consists of 9 members: 4 from the Government/Labor Party, 3 members from the Opposition/Liberal and National Parties, 1 member from the Greens Party and myself (drawn from the smaller parties in the cross bench).
The Inquiry into Victoria’s Upper House electoral system
The Inquiry into Victoria’s Upper House electoral system arose from a recommendation of the EMC in the Inquiry into the 2022 election. The EMC was tasked by the Government to conduct “an inquiry into possible reforms to the composition of, and voting systems for, the Legislative Council”.
Central to the Inquiry were the twin questions of an alternative to Group Voting Tickets (GVTs) and how regions might be restructured to ensure a representative and democratic Legislative Council. It is worth noting that both questions featured prominently in the findings of the EMC Inquiry into the 2018 election, but their recommendations were largely ignored by the Government.
The primary concern with GVTs arises from the lack of transparency associated with how preferences can be directed. This concern has been magnified by the brokering role of the so-called “preference whisperer” Mr Glenn Druery and the significant payments made to Mr Druery by micro-parties who were elected because of his negotiations.
During the 2022 election, there was a great deal of publicity about GVTs and above the line voting. Notwithstanding the fact that all major parties, including Legalise Cannabis Victoria, publicly supported a change from GVTs, and despite all the publicity, well over 90% of Victorians voted above the line.
Changes to the regions becomes a critical issue for smaller parties if GVTs are abolished (rather than reformed). This is because if the current structure is retained (8 regions, each electing 5 members) the percentage of the vote to be elected is so high that smaller parties are at a profound disadvantage. So, for example, when NSW and Western Australia abolished GVTs, they replaced their existing multi-regional structure with a single region encompassing the whole state. By making this change to the regions, effectively lowering the quota required to be elected, they allowed for small parties to compete on a more level playing field and delivered a more democratic and proportional result.
While many submissions stressed the need to make changes to both GVTs and the regions concurrently, the Old Parties voted collectively to recommend:
- Urgently abolishing GVTs and moving to Senate style voting and
- Deferring until after the next State election, the question of changes to the
regions.
This would effectively condemn smaller parties to electoral oblivion at the 2026 election (and subsequent elections if no reform to the regions occurs).
The anti-small party changes recommended in the previously discussed, Inquiry into the 2022 Election report, will further compound this travesty.
Should the Government choose to adopt these recommendations, it will be a dark day for political diversity and democracy in Victoria.
David Ettershank
Member of the Legislative Council for Western Metropolitan Melbourne
23/11/25
Read the full report here.
