Wednesday, 19 February 2025

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (10:22): The report I want to talk on is the Electoral Matters Committee review of the 2022 election, and particularly I want to focus on two of the recommendations that came out of the four major areas they want to see reform in. The first one is shortening the time period for pre-poll from 12 to seven days, closing the electoral roll earlier and bringing forward the close of nominations. For those of us that man polling booths, one of the challenges for the Victorian Electoral Commission is that because they only take short-term leases on polling booth sites, particularly the pre-poll sites, sometimes it is quite challenging not only for those manning the booth but particularly for those that actually go to vote at these booths.

The most recent example in Echuca was where there was a polling booth right on the busiest roundabout in the town and no parking available unless you went across the road to Dan Murphy’s, which some people may find attractive but most people do not necessarily. And then particularly for those that had mobility challenges, they had to cross two busy streets to get to the polling booth. It was dangerous for those people to come and do the pre-poll. Could I add to that recommendation actually that some detailed work be done on the positioning of pre-poll booths so there is some parking and there is the opportunity to get there without having to cross too many busy roads. I think it would make for a much more pleasant experience for everyone. Also there is the fact that when the electoral office staff draw the chalk line on the concrete out the front they are effectively almost standing on the roadway and the same for the people that are coming in. So I think there are some opportunities there to reform the experience for voters and for those that man the booths.

The other issue I want to talk on is the eliminating of group voting tickets in the upper house, and I want to focus on the Northern Victoria Region in particular. My understanding is that our Westminster voting system is set up to reflect the majority of voters’ views as to who they elect there. If I look at the result in the upper house in the northern region, the Animal Justice Party was elected on 1.53 per cent of the vote. I do not necessarily think having a member of Parliament that came in with such a low percentage of the vote is reflective of the majority. It is reflective of the fact that Glenn Druery has worked out how to game the system and charges people for that ability to game the system to get someone elected, which I think is a separate issue, one that IBAC might want to have a look at at some particular time in the future.

What you find is not only was the Animal Justice member of Parliament elected on 1.53 per cent of the vote but with the support of the Labor Party that person was made chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, a committee that does a number of inquiries. Again, with the support of the Labor Party, the chair of that committee, who was elected with 1.53 per cent of the vote, was able to conduct own-motion investigations by that committee into industries that are very important to northern Victoria. They had an inquiry into the operation of the pig industry with the defined aim of actually closing down the pig industry here in Victoria. Someone that was elected with 1.53 per cent of the vote, enabled further by the Labor Party to chair a committee, wanted to close down one of the major industries in northern Victoria. Sixty per cent of the pigs that are produced in Victoria come out of my electorate. That created huge uncertainty for that particular industry there.

Might I say that through that particular process this member of Parliament, who was elected with 1.53 per cent of the vote, was working with a known terrorist group, the Farm Transparency Project, and I do not use the word ‘terrorist’ lightly. If you look at the definition of ‘terrorist’, it is a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians – that is, pig producers – in the pursuit of a political gain. So we have a person that was elected with 1.53 per cent of the vote supporting a terrorist group to try and close down lawful businesses here in Victoria, particularly the abattoirs at Benalla, the Sinclair abattoirs. They chained themselves to the chamber which the pigs go into, which caused so much stress to Colin Sinclair and his family and caused so much cost to Colin Sinclair and his family in defending a civil court case around this issue.

I do not believe the group voting tickets delivering the outcome they have is actually reflective of the community views in my electorate, who want to have that lawful industry, who want to have bacon for breakfast, who might want to actually have roast pork that does not come from interstate or overseas, because we have a person elected with a very small percentage of the vote that wants to close it down.