Hansard debates

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (14:48): The report provides a valuable analysis of the 2022 election, and I commend it to the chamber and to the community. There are, however, a number of recommendations that for Legalise Cannabis Victoria, most of my crossbench colleagues and political activists across the state will be deeply disturbing in terms of their chilling effect on democracy in Victoria. The first are recommendations that will require parties to lodge registration six months in advance. At the same time the minimum number of members to register will increase by 50 per cent for parties, from 500 to 750, and for independents from 6 to 50. This clearly reduces the capacity of small and emerging campaigns to participate in the election process, particularly on relatively short notice.

The second relates to group voting tickets. There is broad support for reform to GVTs, and this involves two elements: the actual voting system and the structure of the regions and the number of members to be elected from each region. The recommendations in this report propose introducing a federal, Senate-style voting system but deferring consideration of the regions, in part because this will require a referendum. If adopted by the government, based on voting numbers in the 2022 election, a few more reps would be added to the government, a few more reps would be added to the opposition and the Greens would roughly double. The rest of the crossbench would be eliminated. These recommendations were supported by the old parties: Labor, Liberals, Nationals and Greens. I believe this is a shoddy cabal of self-interest that poses a real threat to the fastest growing area of electoral support – the smaller parties, the new parties and the independents. These concerns are elaborated further in my minority report. In closing I would like to thank profoundly the secretariat for their outstanding work and the members of the community who contributed to the process.

Motion agreed to.