Tuesday, 5 May 2026

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (19:16): (1645) My adjournment tonight is to the Premier. I am calling on the Labor state government to finally fix Victoria’s dodgy, undemocratic group voting system. Last week far-right extremist Avi Yemini publicly declared that he would register the Free Palestine Party in Victoria and then funnel the votes that this party gets to far-right political parties, intentionally deceiving voters in order to get himself elected. This is obviously outrageous, but it is also currently legal under Victoria’s undemocratic voting laws, because Victoria’s laws allow backroom deals to decide where preferences go in the upper house rather than letting the voters decide for themselves. This system is called group voting. Victoria is the last place in the country to allow it, and it needs to end.

Avi Yemini is not the only person to declare that they will be running for election under a deceiving name and then funnelling votes to far-right political parties. In February anti-lockdown campaigner Monica Smit said that she would run under the name of the Save the Environment Party in order to funnel votes to right-wing parties who have anti-environment policies. And just recently we saw someone declare that they would register the Muslim Votes Matter party and then funnel their votes to parties with anti-immigration and anti-Muslim views. How is it that in 2026 far-right grifters can openly brag about rigging Victoria’s elections and the Labor government does nothing about it? Why does Labor keep allowing con artists to manipulate Victoria’s voting system for profit?

Glenn Druery, the so-called preference whisperer, charges wannabe politicians $55,000 for a backroom preference deal, getting clients elected to the upper house on as little as 0.6 per cent of the vote. This is how the Daylight Saving Party got elected in WA with just 98 votes, taking a seat off other parties who received much, much higher votes. This is an openly anti-democratic system, but now it risks far-right extremists literally buying their way into Victorian Parliament this November. Glenn Druery wants this gravy train to keep running, so he has recently tried a new fear campaign which some in Labor seem to be falling for. He claims that Victoria should keep the dodgy system because it helps keep One Nation out. However, this is simply not true, because we know that in the 2022 election almost all of Glenn Druery’s tiny micro-parties preferenced One Nation over the major parties as part of his backroom deals. Glenn Druery helped One Nation.

And anyway, shouldn’t voters get to decide where their preferences go, not dodgy backroom deals made by a guy who gets paid to do them? If a party polls enough legitimate votes to win a seat in the upper house, then they deserve a seat. Whatever you think of their political views, the voters should get to decide. I think Victorians want their Parliament filled with people they actually voted for, not people who were able to pay huge sums of money to a dodgy backroom dealer. It is time for group voting tickets to end.