Politics of Victoria

Politics of the Australian state of Victoria takes place in the context of a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliamentary system, and like other Australian states, Victoria is part of the federation known as the Commonwealth of Australia.

Victorians, and Melburnians in particular, are considered by some analysts to be more progressive than other Australians.^[1] The state recorded the highest Yes votes of any state in the republic referendum and same-sex marriage survey. Victorians are said to be "generally socially progressive, supportive of multiculturalism, wary of extremes of any kind".^[2] However, the Liberal Party along with the Nationals at varying points had continuous governance from the 1955 Victorian state election to the 1982 Victorian state election, in part due to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955.

State government

The nominal head of the Government of Victoria is the King of Australia, represented in the state by the Governor of Victoria. Legislative power rests with the Crown and the two houses of the Parliament of Victoria. The powers and responsibilities of the parliament are defined in the Constitution Act 1975.^[3]

The Victorian Government is often referred to as "Spring Street", a metonym of the street of that name where the Parliament House of Victoria is located in Melbourne.

Parliament of Victoria

The Parliament of Victoria is bicameral, consisting of a Lower and an Upper house.

The Victorian Legislative Assembly (lower house) is composed of 88 members of parliament, each of whom represent a single electoral district and are elected using a preferential voting system/Instant-runoff voting. The Legislative Assembly currently sits for fixed four-year terms. The leader of the party with a majority in the Legislative Assembly (or with the confidence of the Assembly) is appointed by the Governor as the Premier of Victoria.

The Victorian Legislative Council (upper house) has 40 members (or MLCs), representing eight electoral regions. Five members are elected for each province using a proportional voting system/Single transferable voting. Prior to 2003, the Legislative Council comprised 44 members from 22 two-member provinces until a 2001 constitutional committee recommended the council be re-organised to the current system.

General elections are held every four years, electing the entire Legislative Assembly and half of the Legislative Council. The last state election was on Saturday, 26 November 2022.

Federal politics

Victorian seats in the Australian Parliament
Political Party	House of Representatives	Senate
ALP	24	4
Coalition	11	5
Independent	3	0
Greens	1	2
UAP	0	1
Source: Australian Parliament House and Australian Electoral Commission 2019

Victoria is divided into 38 federal electoral divisions, each represented by a seat in the Australian House of Representatives. Like other Australian states, Victoria is represented by twelve Senators in the Australian Senate, with six of those Senators elected for two three-year Senate terms at each half-Senate election.

Political parties

The centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia, the centre-right National Party of Australia, and the left-wing environmentalist Australian Greens are Victoria's main political parties. Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's working and middle class western, northern and inner-city suburbs, and the regional cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. The Liberals' main support lies in Melbourne's more affluent eastern suburbs and outer suburbs, and some rural and regional centres. The Nationals are strongest in Victoria's North Western and Eastern rural regional areas. The Greens, who won their first lower house seats in 2014, are strongest in inner Melbourne.

Victoria is currently governed by the Australian Labor Party, which regained power in the 2014 Victorian state election; the Labor Party have governed Victoria for all but eleven of the past 42 years (1982–1992, 1999–2010, 2014–present). The other major parties are the Liberal and National Coalition parties.

Other current Parliamentary parties in Victorian politics include the Greens, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Animal Justice Party, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, and Pauline Hanson's One Nation. All state Parliamentary parties except for the LDP, the DLP and Transport Matters are registered to contest federal elections.

Parties not represented in the Parliament include the Companions and Pets Party, the Health Australia Party, and the Victorian Socialists. Of these four parties, only One Nation is registered to contest federal elections.

Referendum results in Victoria

Results of referendums

^[4]
Year	No.	Name	National Voters	States	VIC
1906	1	Senate Elections	82.65%	6:0	83.10%
1910	2	State Debts	54.95%	5:1	64.59%
1910	3	Surplus Revenue	49.04%	3:3	45.26%
1911	4	Trade and Commerce	39.42%	1:5	38.64%
1911	5	Monopolies	39.89%	1:5	38.95%
1913	6	Trade and Commerce	49.38%	3:3	49.12%
	7	Corporations	49.33%	3:3	49.14%
	8	Industrial Matters	49.33%	3:3	49.02%
	9	Trusts	49.78%	3:3	49.71%
	10	Monopolies	49.33%	3:3	49.07%
	11	Railway Disputes	49.13%	3:3	48.79%
1919	12	Legislative Powers	49.65%	3:3	64.65%
1919	13	Monopolies	48.64%	3:3	63.29%
1926	14	Industry and Commerce	43.50%	2:4	36.23%
1926	15	Essential Services	42.80%	2:4	35.55%
1928	16	State Debts	74.30%	6:0	87.78%
1937	17	Aviation	53.56%	2:4	65.10%
1937	18	Marketing	36.26%	0:6	46.58%
1944	19	Post-War Reconstruction and Democratic Rights	45.99%	2:4	49.31%
1946	20	Social Services	54.39%	6:0	55.98%
	21	Marketing	50.57%	3:3	52.37%
	22	Industrial Employment	50.30%	3:3	52.08%
1948	23	Rents and Prices	40.66%	0:6	44.63%
1951	24	Communists and Communism	49.44%	3:3	48.71%
1967	25	Parliament	40.25%	1:5	30.87%
1967	26	Aboriginals	90.77%	6:0	94.68%
1973	27	Prices	43.81%	0:6	45.18%
1973	28	Incomes	34.42%	0:6	33.44%
1974	29	Simultaneous Elections	48.30%	1:5	49.19%
	30	Mode of Altering the Constitution	47.99%	1:5	49.22%
	31	Democratic Elections	47.20%	1:5	47.71%
	32	Local Government Bodies	46.85%	1:5	47.38%
1977	33	Simultaneous Elections	62.22%	3:3	65.00%
	34	Senate Casual Vacancies	73.32%	6:0	76.13%
	35	Referendums	77.72%	6:0	80.78%
	36	Retirement of Judges	80.10%	6:0	81.43%
1984	37	Terms of Senators	50.64%%	2:4	53.20%
1984	38	Interchange of Powers	47.06%	0:6	49.86%
1988	39	Parliamentary Terms	32.92%	0:6	36.20%
	40	Fair Elections	37.60%	0:6	40.12%
	41	Local Government	33.62%	0:6	36.06%
	42	Rights and Freedoms	30.79%	0:6	33.42%
1999	43	Establishment of Republic	45.13%	0:6	49.84%
1999	44	Preamble	39.34%	0:6	42.46%
2023 ^[a]	45	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice	39.24%	0:6	44.98%

Notable Victorian political figures

Daniel Mannix: Catholic archbishop and opponent of conscription in World War I.

John Wren: Bookmaker, underworld figure and politician. The famous novel Power Without Glory by communist author Frank Hardy was allegedly based on his exploits, although a short TV documentary appearing on Rewind showed Hardy's portrayal of Wren as a lifelong crime figure was itself politically motivated. Unsuccessful attempts were made to suppress the novel on the grounds of libel, although these backfired and caused the fictional life of Hardy's John West to become tangled with Wren's in the minds of most Australians.

Robert Menzies: Australia's longest serving Prime Minister held office during the 1950s and 1960s. Remembered for anti-communism, extreme devotion to the Queen and Empire, and for a period of particular prosperity and a sense of well-being and stability in Australia.

Henry Bolte: Premier of Victoria from 1955 to 1972, notable for his conservative populist style and for his role in the last judicial execution (the hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967) in Australia.

Jeff Kennett: Premier from 1992 to 1999. His aggressive reforms and populist style led to a surprise electoral loss in 1999 to Steve Bracks.

Daniel Andrews Premier from 2014 to 2023.

Recent state election results


	Primary vote
	ALP	L+NP	Oth.
1999 Victorian state election	45.57%	47.02%	7.41%
2002 Victorian state election	47.95%	38.21%	13.84%
2006 Victorian state election	43.06%	39.61%	17.34%
2010 Victorian state election	36.25%	44.78%	18.98%
2014 Victorian state election	38.10%	42.0%	19.9%
2018 Victorian state election	42.86%	35.19%	21.95%
2022 Victorian state election	36.66%	34.48%	28.86%

Notes

^ Results for this referendum are preliminary, and percentages may change, however the result is very likely not to change.

References

^ Debbie Cuthbertson (17 November 2017). "Victoria's new age of enlightenment puts NSW in the shade". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sunny Sydneysiders might consider themselves much more open-minded and free thinking than their archetypal black-clad Melbourne cousins. But taking the political temperature of the two states shows that supposedly dour Victorians are loosening their corsets and becoming much more progressive.
^ Gay Alcorn (10 May 2013). "Welcome to Victoria, the progressive state". The Age. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
^ Parliament of Victoria - Victoria's Constitution, Department of Justice (Government of Victoria).
^ Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 – Referendums and Plebiscites – Referendum results". Parliamentary Library of Australia..