Victorian Parliament Must Reject Andrews’ Electoral Bill

The Institute of Public Affairs has today urged Victorian Members of Parliament to oppose the Victorian Electoral Legislation Amendment Bill 2018, which is an undemocratic and wasteful attack on free speech, which would squeeze out minor parties and entrench the two-party system.

The IPA’s Parliamentary Research Brief, authored by IPA Research Fellow, Gideon Rozner, was sent to all Members of the Victorian Parliament.

“The cap on individuals’ financial support is an extremely concerning limit on freedom of speech. It’s no different from capping the number of how-to-vote cards a party volunteer hands out, or the number of petitions a voter can sign. No form of democratic participation should be limited by the state,” said Mr Rozner.

“It’s interesting to note that payments like so-called ‘affiliation fees’ will not be subject to the cap. So it will be business as usual for the Labor Party, which will continue to rake in thousands in ‘fees’ from the unions.

“Victorians should be outraged that they will be footing the bill for election campaigns. Taxpayer funding for parties and candidates will blow out from around $9.8 million at the last election to over $27.6 million.

“Because the vast majority of this funding will be given to Labor, the Coalition and the Greens, the bill is likely to entrench the two-party system and ‘lock out’ minority voices from the Parliament,” said Mr Rozner.

Download the Parliamentary Research Brief.