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The Victorian government on Tuesday confirmed it was adding an extra sitting week in November to pass all the legislation it wants to clear by the end of 2025.
”Our big legislative agenda is focused on what matters most to Victorians – investing in frontline services delivering real help with the cost of living to Victorian families,” a spokesperson said.
Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell, and Legalise Cannabis MPs David Ettershank and Rachel Payne.Credit: Jason South
Labor was forced to pull its grand prix bill last week after Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell did not support it, a sign of the importance of the crossbench in the upper house.
Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis support the abolition of group voting tickets only if accompanied by bigger reform like replacing the eight regions with a single statewide electorate, as is used in NSW and Western Australia.
But changing the structure of the upper house in this way would require a referendum. Two sources said they expected group voting tickets could be abolished next year, while a referendum on broader reforms could be tied to the next local government elections in 2028.
Legalise Cannabis national secretary Craig Ellis said eliminating group voting tickets without abolishing the upper house regions would be “the most egregious outcome” and “unfathomable”. It would require a candidate to receive 16.7 per cent of the vote, after the distribution of preferences, to get a quota for an upper house seat.
Victorians would dictate the flow of their preferences and their vote would extinguish once they stopped numbering boxes.
The Victorian Greens – who usually suffer most from group voting – last week introduced a bill seeking to dump group voting.
Greens integrity spokesman Dr Tim Read said seats shouldn’t be determined by backroom deals.
“The case for scrapping group voting tickets is clear – it can be done now, without a referendum, to deliver a fairer election in 2026,” he said.
The Victorian Liberal Party also supports the abolition of group voting tickets.
Controversial “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery rose to prominence for successfully stitching together these backroom deals and spruiked his cash-for-seats business in a leaked video at the 2022 election.
Another complication is the factional power-sharing deal within Victorian Labor.
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Some power brokers are using the prospect of reform to argue sitting MPs could be swapped to different positions on Labor’s upper house tickets, claiming it would improve their chances of retaining second-place positions.
Election analyst Ben Raue, in a submission to the inquiry, estimated that if the 2022 election had been held without group voting tickets that Labor and the Coalition would have picked up an extra seat each while the Greens would have picked up two. This would have come at the expense of other minor parties.
Former ABC election analyst Antony Green has previously said the current “rotten” system meant that votes above the line in Victoria were “sent on a magical mystery tour across the ballot paper”.
Some sources said there was still a chance Premier Jacinta Allan could walk away from the reform or push it into the next term.
A source close to crossbench MPs, speaking anonymously about confidential discussions, said removing group voting tickets without broader reforms would all but guarantee the “sacking of some of the most effective legislators who hail from minor parties”.
“I hope the government has locked in the Liberals to back every piece of its legislation for the next 18 months because the premier should expect an incredibly hostile and unco-operative crossbench if she makes this decision,” they said.
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