Tuesday, 2 December 2025

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (13:36): Pursuant to section 35 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, I table a report on the inquiry into the 2025 Prahran and Werribee by-elections, including an appendix and extracts of proceedings from the Electoral Matters Committee, and I present the transcripts of evidence. I move:

That the transcripts of evidence be tabled and the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Jacinta ERMACORA: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

Just a few brief words again of thanks to all those from the communities involved that submitted, and, from the hearings, the Hansard team, the secretariat and Ms Emma Vulin, who predated me as well on the committee.

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (13:37): I rise to speak on this report on the Prahran and Werribee by-elections, and I would like to thank Christopher Gribbin, the secretariat and my colleagues who are also on this committee. I think we all picked up and we all shared a lot of common agreement on this particular report, particularly on some of the failings of the Victorian Electoral Commission staff, particularly at Werribee, I would say, and where we can improve. I would like to thank all the parties who participated as well.

People will note in the appendix there is a point on which the Liberals and Nationals differed with the other members of the committee, and that is the I think absurd recommendation that we should be scooping data from the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority in order to automatically sign people up to the electoral roll. As we know, there are several legislative restrictions and, for good reason, security protections on data to do with recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence and other matters to do with the RTBA on using every single authority available to scoop people onto the electoral roll. It is the responsibility of individual voters in this state to make sure their electoral enrolment is up to date, and that is the law. You can completely understand VicRoads being used, but a data-gathering exercise to scoop people on the electoral roll is not the way we should be treating very, very sensitive data. We know there have been incidents in the past involving data. That is why we have very strict legislative controls over this. Any such recommendation would require an extraordinary amount of legislation to unpick, which is why the Liberals and Nationals deemed that recommendation the wrong way to go. But overall, besides that, the report is very good, and I thank the secretariat.

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (13:39): I too want to thank the secretariat, my fellow committee members and all those who contributed to this inquiry. I think once again this report reflects well the concerns that were raised about both of these by-elections in their respective electorates. While the elections were by and large conducted fairly, voter participation could have been improved, particularly in the Prahran by-election, and it is worth noting that once again there were concerns that came through in this inquiry about the conduct of some campaigners, particularly third-party campaigners. Venues could have been more accessible, and there were some logistical concerns regarding timelines and coordination.

Of particular note, there was very low turnout in Prahran, only 68.28 per cent – the lowest of any Victorian by-election – although all by-elections show a similar drop compared to general elections. A contributing factor may have been the very high mobility of the population in this district, with younger demographics and a higher proportion of renters meaning the electoral roll is likely to have details that are out of date. The timing of the closure of election rolls, which was over the Christmas period, also likely exacerbated this. So we strongly support the report’s recommendation that the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) should explore new organisations that it can receive data from as part of its automatic enrolment program, including the Residential Tenancy Bond Authority and the State Revenue Office.

There were also a range of recommendations regarding accessibility of venues, which we support, and VEC staff escalation procedures for campaigners. Once again, as I said, there were candidates and volunteers who experienced verbal or physical harassment by other campaigners, often affiliated with a third party. We therefore strongly support the recommendation of the report to legislate a campaigner registration program, which comes off the back of previous similar recommendations in reports.

Motion agreed to.