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An overhaul of Victoria’s upper house voting system – which allows tiny political parties to swap preferences and leapfrog more popular candidates into parliament – has attracted the conditional support of the state Labor Party.

Five political parties gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday and all want an end to the controversial group voting system. The Greens say it is open to corruption while the state director of the Nationals says it’s “failing” the community.

Voters at a polling booth on election day.Credit: VEC

And while Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday talked down the possibility, the Labor Party indicated support for the overhaul.

“We are, in principle, in favour of abolishing group voting tickets,” Labor’s assistant state secretary Cameron Petrie told the hearing. “But we would want to see what the alternative [looks like] and have the policy work done.”

Preston MP Nathan Lambert, a Labor member on the electoral matters committee, told the hearing that the system was problematic because voters couldn’t predict where their vote landed.

For people who vote above-the-line for the Legislative Council, the parties control the direction of preferences based on backroom deals – regardless of the views of the voters.

That allows minor and micro parties to game the system, including by paying preference harvester Glenn Druery to manufacture preference swaps, combine votes and catapult candidates into the upper house with little support.

Victoria is the only Australian jurisdiction that persists with group voting, which can lead to unusual outcomes. In the previous term of parliament, Transport Matters Party MP Rod Barton was elected with 0.6 per cent of first preference votes, while Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell was elected on 1.53 per cent this term.

At the inquiry on Thursday, the Nationals, Greens, Animal Justice Party and Victorian Socialists all backed a reform ahead of the 2026 election. The Liberal Party is yet to appear, but has declared its support for change via a submission.

Asked about group voting on Thursday morning, Andrews said the government would respond in time after the committee tabled its recommendations in parliament.

“But what I would say is, in my experience, when politicians rail against a set of rules that are there to determine who gets elected to what, they’re sometimes – just sometimes – quite heavily motivated by wanting to get more of their people elected,” Andrews said.

‘We don’t need to work out how to put the Band-aids on this system. Let’s get rid of it.’

The Greens, which in the previous term of parliament only had one of 40 upper house MPs despite attracting 9.25 per cent of the vote in 2018, have long sought reform. The party now has four upper house MPs, a more accurate reflection of its 10.32 per cent support.

Psephologist Dr Kevin Bonham and ABC’s election analyst Antony Green have both advocated for group voting to be repealed, describing it as undemocratic and easily manipulated.

But some micro parties resist change, arguing that diversity in the parliament represents the will of the people as an increasing number of voters turn away from the major parties.

Martin Shield, state director of the Victorian Greens, said group voting rewarded “deception” and “corrupt conduct”.

“We don’t need to work out how to put the Band-aids on this system. Let’s get rid of it,” he told the inquiry.

Nationals state director Matthew Harris on Thursday said that the upper house voting system was “failing the community”.

“There is no way on earth an average voter has any idea where their vote is flowing,” Harris said.

Animal Justice Victorian convenor Bronwyn Currie said buying or selling preference deals was unethical and undemocratic.

“Even though we ultimately benefited from it, we would see this changed for future elections,” she said.

The party undercut Druery at the 11th hour during the 2022 election to benefit from his preference harvesting while denying their support to his other clients. No money exchanged hands between the party and Druery, Currie told the hearing on Thursday.

Will Fowles, the chair of the committee, did not appear at the hearings on Thursday after he resigned from the parliamentary Labor Party amid assault allegations, which he strongly denies. Police have said that the complainant has not made a statement and so there is no investigation underway.

Deputy chair Evan Mulholland, a Liberal upper house MP who led the hearing, asked Petrie and Labor state secretary Chris Ford whether they were aware of any complaints about Fowles’ conduct during the election. They said they were not.

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