Dear Committee Secretary,
This submission presents research and analysis by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) in response to issues raised in the Electoral Matters Committee’s (the committee) Inquiry into Victoria’s Upper House electoral system.
Upper houses are a critical feature of parliamentary democracy and act as a constraint on the power of government in the lower house of parliament. Specifically, IPA research has identified that upper houses provide three key structural benefits:
- Accountability: as a house of review, upper houses have the role of scrutinising the laws and actions of the government-of-the-day in the lower house.
- Democracy: in the absence of an upper house, the executive government would wield excessive power over the elected parliament due to its majority in the lower house.
- Regional representation: well-designed upper houses balance the metropolitan dominance of politics by giving a voice to those regional areas that provide disproportionate economic benefit to a jurisdiction and promote decentralisation.
Any reform to Victoria’s upper house (the Legislative Council) must be consistent with the above values. This submission highlights concerns with the current design of the Legislative Council, responds to the proposed models put forward in the discussion paper published by the committee, and suggests how a model could advance accountability, democracy, and regional representation for Victorians.
