Motion: 'Electoral Matters Committee Referral'

MOTION

‘ELECTORAL MATTERS COMMITTEE REFERRAL’.

Thursday, 20 February 2025

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (16:03):

I will start by agreeing with the previous speaker and reiterate that the Coalition will be supporting the motion that the Government has moved in relation to the inquiry into the two by-elections.

It is important to make sure that, as we have one of the best democratic systems in the world, the systems that make that happen, that are in place, are robust and they work. At times they will not be perfect, but this review is an opportunity to look at where things can be improved and where we can do better.

I think it is also important to start by noting that the Victorian Electoral Commission enlists, at times of election, the most wonderful people to take part in the democratic process. People from all of our communities put their hand up to be part of votes when they take place, whether it be a general election, whether it be a by-election or whether it be a Federal or State Election. Often when you are in your community you will see people that you know, and obviously when you go into a voting place you will show them the respect they deserve, because they are there to make sure the system works and to make sure we all get the chance to vote. They are good people; they are great staff. I am sure that everybody in this place would agree that the VEC enlists the best parts of the community to be part of the system.

This inquiry hopefully will look at some very important issues. When we talked about things that do need to be addressed, I know that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition noted a number of things like making sure that scrutineers had access to buildings at the right time. I am aware of other instances where people were let into buildings unaccompanied. I saw votes being found, and in no way am I casting any aspersion upon anybody. Nothing is ever perfect, but when you see boxes open that have not been sealed and significant numbers of votes found in wrong boxes, you want to make sure that those issues, in terms of the way the VEC operates and the processes around them, those mistakes, do not occur, because we need to make sure that our system is beyond reproach.

There are things that have occurred in the by-elections that need to be addressed, and we need to make sure that we go through and enhance our processes. I saw a lot of those issues firsthand scrutineering in Werribee on the first day. A number of us on this side of the Chamber were there scrutineering as those votes were being counted, and so were a lot of the staff of the Labor Members on the other side of the Chamber. There were a lot of us in the room, and we were all there for the scrutineering. Both State and Federal staff of the Government Members were there.

There were a number of other issues that hopefully we can look at as part of the inquiry, not just things to do with the count and scrutineering but also making sure that with pre-poll, which more people want to do, we do not look for ways to make that difficult for people. My view is we want to make sure that people have the longest opportunity. As someone who at every pre-poll in my own elections will stand there for every minute of every day, it would be easier to say let us do it for a day or two less, but my personal view is it is a really fantastic way to engage people. If we are talking about turnout and we want people to turn out, the best way to do that is provide them more opportunity to vote. I think we always have to fight against a push to truncate voting. I think that people want to vote earlier. They want the option and convenience of voting at pre-poll. I think we need to give them that chance, and we as Members and our campaign staff around us, we just need to stand there for longer, frankly. I know that many will not love me saying that, but I really do think that is important.

I do want to note one real concern I had in the by-election process, and that was the VEC seeking to require sign-in for volunteers who were working at booths. I very strongly oppose the requirement to disenfranchise people from attending a polling booth and having their voice heard in terms of campaigning for candidates. The idea that big government needs to record who is there and record the details of those people and enforce some kind of ‘big government’ bureaucracy over people expressing themselves is very, very concerning. I know that the Coalition have already spoken about our concerns about that. But I think it would be wrong to think that the VEC should trial that any further, and it would be wrong for the VEC to think that that would in any way be appropriate in an election. Effectively it would run against the grain of you having the right to a freedom of association and to a freedom of choice around your own vote.

To have Government recording people and how they vote – because that is effectively what it is, recording people’s votes, and Government would hold the data of any campaign worker that the VEC collected in terms of how they were campaigning – is a very dangerous path. It runs against, in my view, both Federal and State law. I am sure that the VEC has not looked into the legality of what they were asking people to do, but I suspect that there would be serious legal issues with it, and I was shocked to see them trying to do that.

I hope that this review also goes into some of the broader structural issues with the VEC that played out in this by-election – as we talked about, things like scrutineers et cetera and some processes around that. They are not unique to this by-election. We have seen some of these issues play out. I know in the last State election there were polling places that ran out of ballots. We have seen final counts still not being done on a number of seats for the 2022 election – the two-party preferred votes have not been done on a number of seats still to this day. So not everything is perfect, and though this review goes to this specific by-election, I think it would be fair to say that there are some processes in relation to the VEC that are starting to look shabby. Hopefully this review will assist in making sure that we can clean up the edges of those problems that do exist before the next State Election.

If I can finish on a final point, I was just speaking about the sign-in and the requirement for big Government to hold data on that. I note that when we talk about turnout and the issue with turnout at this by-election, perhaps the VEC could focus more on getting people out to vote than trying to record the campaign workers who are there to express their view. I think we need to forget and focus less on the bureaucracy and more on the engagement. That is, I think, something that Government departments and Government agencies forget – they forget the outwardness of their job and focus more on the internal. I am not saying there are not internal issues that need to be addressed, and hopefully they are, but I think the VEC needs to look frankly at the way the AEC operates. The AEC tries very hard to be an outward organisation in terms of encouraging voter turnout, and they do a good job. They try and be as cool as they possibly can considering they
are an electoral organisation, but they try really hard on that engagement piece. That is something I think the VEC can learn from, and this review would be an opportunity to do that. Just to reiterate, the Coalition will be supporting this motion. It is a good opportunity.