Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is a step closer to seizing majority control of Victoria’s capital city council after this decision by VCAT president justice Greg Garde yesterday, which overturned an earlier decision by magistrate Michael Smith at the Municipal Electoral Tribunal.
As was explained in this Crikey piece in December, the courts are attempting to resolve how the 11th City of Melbourne councillor will be selected. Indigenous candidate Brooke Wandin was an unexpected successful candidate in the October elections, but then she resigned after the Victorian Electoral Commission declared her elected but before she was sworn in or held office.
Wandin’s former running mate, defeated Labor councillor Richard Foster, dobbed her in to the Victorian Electoral Commission for being incorrectly enrolled as a resident at his house in Kensington just hours after she was declared elected. (Wandin actually lives in Healesville, near the Coranderrk Aboriginal reservation to which her great, great uncle William Barak and his fellow Wurundjeri people were shunted off by the colonial invaders in 1863.)
As a result of the incorrect enrolment, both Foster and Wandin are facing criminal charges in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court next month, and the VEC is arguing that there should be a recount, which assumes she had withdrawn from the contest before the election.
The majority of councillors in the previous council were not residents in the City of Melbourne, and Brooke Wandin wasn’t aware there was a problem with her enrolment when she was declared elected. She only declined to attend the swearing-in ceremony two days later when there was suddenly all this talk, partly driven by the Lord Mayor, that she might go to jail if she didn’t quickly confess to her sins.
Wandin’s decision not to get sworn in may prove pivotal in delivering Robert Doyle his cherished majority, because the VEC is emphasising that she never actually held office.
As The Age reported yesterday, Wandin’s running mate on the “Indigenous Voice on Council” ticket was Nic Frances Gilley, a former CEO of the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Australia. He is likely to be elected to replace Wandin in both the recount and the count-back scenario.
However, under the recount method proposed by the VEC and supported by Justice Greg Garde yesterday, the City of Melbourne’s complex system of Senate-style group voting tickets is also likely to result in existing councillor Michael Caiafa getting ousted from his seat and replaced by Team Doyle’s No. 4, Susan Riley.
This is different from all previous senate recounts and count-backs ordered by the High Court (including the recent case involving former One Nation senator Rod Culleton), which have only been about replacing one candidate, not throwing all the preference sequences up in the air again.
Caiafa is a Queen Victoria Market trader who received the fourth highest primary vote of 7.76% running on Phil Cleary’s ticket. The quota is 10%. If he is ousted after receiving 5617 votes and the system replaces him with the running mate of an ineligible candidate who only received 14 below-the-line votes, there will be howls of protest — and a likely Supreme Court challenge from the Cleary camp.
The recount will be conducted at 2pm tomorrow and then interested parties will have until 4pm on Friday to seek leave to join the proceedings, which will resume before Garde at VCAT at 10am next Tuesday.
However, Garde’s decision to set aside Smith’s decision and order the VEC’s preferred recount seemed quite ominous for the Cleary camp, although he didn’t go into the detailed legal arguments covered in the original decision by Smith, which rejected the VEC’s proposal for a recount and instead ordered a count-back.
The delay in selecting the 11th councillor is already influencing decisions at City of Melbourne because it has temporarily given Team Doyle majority control with the Lord Mayor’s casting vote if the vote is dead-locked at 5-5.
This has impacted homelessness policy also saw council lose quorum earlier this month when the five Team Doyle councillors declared a conflict on a planning item dealing with James Packer’s proposal to build the tallest building in the southern hemisphere on the banks of the Yarra.
This was because Crown Resorts director Harold Mitchell donated $10,000 to the Team Doyle campaign and members of the Australian Hotels Association have given close to $100,000 to the pro-pokies group over the past five years.
*Former City of Melbourne Councillor Stephen Mayne is a party to the VCAT proceedings and was not paid for this item. His submission to VCAT is available here.
Stephen Mayne continues to get his facts wrong and makes false and misleading statements. His use of sensational words such as seizing control brings into question his assessment.
The decision to hold a recount as opposd to a count back is a correct decision. (Unlike Stephen Mayne who wanted to impose am outcome that was not based on law by making exeptions to allow Ms Wanin to remain on Council .
It is not the ticket vote that will see Phil Cleary’s candidate removed from office but the below the line vote and the distortions in the way the vote is counted.
In the Intiutal count the Greens ticket vote increased in value diprotionally by 200 votes. The infalted Green vote elected Michael Caiafa ahead of Team Doyle’s Susan Riley.
With Wandin removed from the count a significant number of votes below the line that preference women candidates ahead of other candidates flowed to Susan Riley and reduced the surplus that will flow to Ms Wandin;s running mate Nic Gilley and in the process reduced the ectnt of distortion in the Greens ticket vote. The Greens had a surplus of 43 votes at a value of less than 0.003. when they trabnsfred though Wandin their votes disproportional increase in value to over 0.08 at the expense of other votes.
The system of counting the ballot in Victoria’s Muncipal elections is seriously flawed and in need of Parliamentary review.
we should scrap the Wasted ‘Droop’ quota which was designed to faciliate a manual count and adopt a reiterative fully proportional count.
Stephen Mayne was aware of teh flaws in the system and method of counting the vote and did nothing whilst on council or as a represenative on the MAV to adress this issue. Nothing.
Stephen Mayne is also not a resident of Melbourne, he secured his entitlement hy renting a desk in a loft off Lord Mayor Candidate Gary Morgan.
if Stephen Mayne was serious about electoral reform and addressing these issues he would support the call for the Victorian Parliament Electoral Matters Committee to undertake a inquiry into the 2016 Municipal Elections. Local Government falls within the terms of reference of the Committee yet it had not conducted a review of Local Government elections. This task is all too often left to a departmental Ministerial review where issues are often overlooked or are not addressed. parliamentary inquiry into the voting system is the appropriate course of action.
Correction.
In the initial count the Greens ticket vote increased in value disproportionately by 200o votes. (not 200)
The infalted Green vote elected Michael Caiafa ahead of Team Doyle’s Susan Riley.
The principle in the use of a casting vote is well established. It should be send to maintain the status quo or if none to the negative, Se Nick Renton’s Guide to Meetings
Results of the recount confirm Nic Gilleys and usan Riley elected and Michael Caiafa out.
Reason A large number of Female preferred voters flowed from Wandin to Susan Riley reducing Wandin’s number two ‘ Nic Gilley’s, surplus and as a result reduced the distortion in the Surplus Transfer flow on in the Green Ticket vote, This brings Susan Riley over the line electing her ahead of Michael Caiafa falls into the wasted quota basket.
The opportunistic argument put forward by Stephen Mayne that Nic Gilley’s candidature should also be disqualified is more to do with self interest then respecting the voters choice. Stephen Mayne know full well that if Nic Gilley’s is excluded from the recount then he would be elected, The distortion in the Greens vote would increase and Michael Caiafa would retain his seat.
Clearly it would be wrong to make a decision based on the known outcome.
The recount is the correct process. And as the High Court has ruled its needs to be considered in the same light as a candidate dying mid election. The voters intentions being paramount to the outcome.
The re-count should stand, under current rules.
The method of counting the vote is out dated and flawed an in urgent need of review.
There needs to be a Parliamentary inquiry into the method of counting the vote so as to remove the distortions that saw the Green vote increase in value, disproportionately, at the expense of other votes and to restore confidence in our electoral process.