Victorian political parties should no longer be allowed to redistribute preferences for above-the-line votes to end the shady practice of preference whispering, a parliamentary committee says.
Following its inquiry into the 2022 Victorian election, the Labor-chaired electoral matters committee has made 98 recommendations including for group voting tickets to be scrapped.
Victoria is the only Australian jurisdiction still using group voting tickets, which allow parties to distribute upper-house preferences when people vote above the line on the ballot paper.
The two-volume report, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, found the system may result in some above-the-line votes being distributed in ways voters did not expect or want.
"Group voting tickets also lead to distrust in the system, encourage more candidates on ballot papers and enable 'preference whispering', which some people see as unethical," it reads.
Manipulation of the voting system was laid bare before the 2022 state election after so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery was covertly recorded boasting about his method.
In the footage, Mr Druery asked representatives from the Angry Victorians Party to pay $55,000 for each candidate he managed to get elected through his backroom dealings.
The committee wants the government to introduce legislation to eliminate group voting tickets, allow voters to indicate multiple preferences for parties or groups above the line in the order listed on the ballot paper, and have ballot papers direct voters to select at least five preferences above the line.
A vote should still be valid if fewer than five preferences above the line are indicated and the system for voting below the line should not be changed, it added.
"These changes would enable voters to better understand where their votes would be transferred, while also being relatively simple for voters and minimising the proportion of votes that do not count towards any candidates," the report said.
Major parties would likely be over-represented if group voting tickets were eliminated and the current structure of upper house regions continued, the committee noted.
To compensate, it recommended the upper house "quota" for a candidate to be elected be reduced from 16.7 per cent.
That would require changes to the number of members or the number of regions, with the committee calling for parliament to pave the way for it to conduct a further inquiry into possible reforms to the upper house electoral system.
"Eliminating group voting tickets should occur independently of changes to the regions and must not be delayed in order to take place after or at the same time as changes to the regions," the report said.
Other recommendations included reducing the early voting period from 12 to seven days, closing the electoral roll earlier and bringing forward the close of nominations.
The committee also wants an enforceable code of conduct to reduce inappropriate behaviour by candidates and campaigners, a limit on campaigners at voting centres and the introduction of truth in political advertising laws.
The Victorian government is required to respond to the report within six months.
The Greens say Labor needs to scrap "undemocratic" group voting tickets before Victorians head to the polls in 2026.
