Who stands to benefit from the Victorian electoral change?
Small Business Australia Executive Director, Bill Lang comments on the changes for council voting in Victoria.
ABC Radio
Sunday 19th May 2024
"The Labor government should remove this very complicated and complex change to the regulations that they put through the parliament during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and return to the way it's worked in the past. It's simpler, it's fairer and its much lower costs for everybody involved."
Bill Lang, Executive Director, Small Business Australia
Herald Sun
Sunday 19th May 2024
Quotes supplied by Executive Director, Bill Lang
"At risk are up to one million voters losing their democratic right to have a say as to who represents them at a local level."
"This is scandalous and has the potential to alter the results of council elections across the state, and poses the question of who stands to benefit from excluding business and property owners from the ballot."
"We had assumed that those responsible for this enrolment (local councils and shires) would have systems in place to both proactively contact these ratepayers, as well as an easy mechanism for them to enrol to vote,"
"We could not have been more wrong, with the majority of councils (90 per cent in metropolitan Melbourne) having no system in place and many confused over the changes to the Local Government Act themselves."
"When those who are responsible for ensuring your right to vote is protected have no idea how to do that, then what hope does the voter have in having their democratic right to vote protected."
