Democracy and integrity policy – recommended changes (2026)

	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T
1	Principle	Proposed action		Current wording	Proposed wording	Rationale for change	Possible amended wording	Decision	General member positions + comments
2	or Aim		#		(changed text bolded)				Colin	Sam B	Jo F	Domenica	Steph	Alex	AJ	Riya	Tim R

3	principle ("The Greens believe...")	non-substantive amendment		Democracy is about more than just elections. Democracy is about elevating everyone’s voice and building the power of the many. A robust and fair liberal parliamentary democracy is important but democracy in the workplace, economy and community are critical to shifting power from a handful of unelected owners and managers to everyone more equitably.	Convert preamble into principles: 1. Democracy is about more than just elections; it's about elevating everyone’s voice and building the power of the many. 2. A robust, fair and liberal parliamentary democracy is important, but democracy in the workplace, economy and community are all critical to shifting power from a handful of unelected owners and managers to everyone more equitably.	For consistency with other state policies, where preambles have been retired and converted.
4	principle ("The Greens believe...")	no change	1	Democracy is how we come together to make decisions about our common future. Democracy works because the more people are genuinely involved in making those decisions, the better the decisions are likely to be.
5	principle ("The Greens believe...")	amendment – substantive	2	Representative and participatory democracy, in all of its manifestations, is about how we as Victorians collectively make decisions about our future. Democratic control over decision-making is the basis for governments’ legitimacy, and the quality of decisions that are made within the systems we create.	Democratic control over decision-making is the basis for governments’ legitimacy.	For succinctness; substance of original first sentence already covered elsewhere.
6	principle ("The Greens believe...")	no change	3	The disproportionate influence of wealth and capital on our democracy can in part be countered through regulation of political finance and lobbying, as well as providing adequate resources and robust freedoms for civil society.
7	principle ("The Greens believe...")	amendment – substantive	4	Participation in democracy should not be limited to voting in elections. There must be opportunities for individuals and other organisations to participate in decisions affecting their lives, including in their workplaces and local communities.	Participation in democracy cannot be limited to voting in elections; people must be afforded the time, resources and support necessary to meaningfully participate in decisions which affect them, including in their workplaces and local communities.	Various changes additions to make the moral claim a bit stronger, and to be a bit more specific about what we're shooting for.
8	principle ("The Greens believe...")	amendment – substantive	5	Peoples' capacity for democratic engagement is built upon their economic emancipation, where freedom from poverty, work and exploitation open more opportunities for greater democracy.	People’s capacity for democratic engagement is built upon economic emancipation, where freedom from poverty and exploitation open opportunities for greater democracy.	Recommend removing 'work', which is confusing when used in this context, and meaningfully covered by 'exploitation' in any case.
9	principle ("The Greens believe...")	amendment – substantive	6	Liberal parliamentary democracy has its limitations and social change can only be achieved through building power both inside and outside Parliament, through empowering social movements, and building workers' power in their workplaces.	Representative democracy has important strengths but clear limits. Improvements to social and economic conditions are often won through grassroots action – through inclusive movements in workplaces, communities and across society more broadly.	Reword for clarity.
10	principle ("The Greens believe...")	addition		[new clause]	The freedom to seek, receive and impart information is vital to a functioning democracy.	Important missing sentiment from current principles.
11	principle ("The Greens believe...")	no change	7	The right to protest and dissent is inherent to the functioning of a democracy.
12	principle ("The Greens believe...")	non-substantive amendment	8	Community organisations and individuals, including public servants, should be able to participate in public debate without fear of retribution.	Community organisations and individuals, including public servants, should be free to participate in public debate without fear of retribution.
13	principle ("The Greens believe...")	non-substantive amendment	9	Parties' selection of candidates should be conducted transparently and democratically.	Candidate selection within political parties should be conducted transparently and democratically by party members.
14	principle ("The Greens believe...")	no change	10	Parliament should reflect the diversity of Victoria's society.
15	principle ("The Greens believe...")	addition		[new clause]	Democracy can only serve everyone in society when it is secular and cleanly distinct from religion.
16	principle ("The Greens believe...")	addition		[new clause]	The best form of democracy is one in which all people can participate equally in public decision-making, with fair access to the processes and institutions of government.
17	principle ("The Greens believe...")	addition		[new clause]	A robust democracy depends on accountability mechanisms for all those in power. Parliamentarians should never investigate themselves.
18	heading	no change		Democracy and community participation
19	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	1	Build democracy outside formal elections, including in workplaces, in communities and within member-based organisations.
20	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	2	Enshrine the rights to protest, strike and take political and industrial action as human rights.	Enshrine the rights to protest, strike and take political and industrial action in law.	'In law' more direct and tangible framing.
21	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	3	Reduce the police's role in protests and strikes and remove the capacity for governments and police to arbitrarily restrict public gatherings for political purposes.	Limit the police's role at protests and strikes, recognising that their presence creates undue tension and marginalised communities are disproportionately targeted.	Original wording is ambiguos as to whether we consider all police powers to restrict all public gatherings arbitrary, or just some of them, and therefore us ambiguous about what we would actually 'remove'. The proposed reword refocuses on 'limit' (and in that way minimise arbitrariness), while also using the last half of the clause to identify the effect of their role.
22	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	4	Ensure the democratic and civic rights of individuals, collectives and communities are protected in states of emergency.
23	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	5	Remove any restrictions on member-based organisations, including charities and unions, on their capacity to campaign and advocate during election periods, except for appropriate caps on donations and campaign expenditure.
24	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	6	Ensure that all government and executive consultation processes are open, accessible, well-publicised and well facilitated.	Ensure all public consultation processes are open, widely advertised, well facilitated and accessible – including by allowing ample time for participation.	Expand scope slightly to 'public', and add wording to support enough time for particiaption for the consultation to be meaningful.
25	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	7	Expand democratic participation in executive decision-making through deliberative mechanisms including citizens assemblies, participatory budgeting and ballots on policy issues.
26	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	8	Incentivise the development of workplace democracy and, for major publicly funded projects, include workplace democracy mechanisms as conditions of contract.
27	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	9	Convert all single-member districts in all jurisdictions to multi-member divisions elected proportionally.	Reform electoral systems to ensure parliaments and councils better reflect the communities they represent, including by:	Following proposal would introduce three sub-clauses covering what we would consider acceptable methods for making the system more proportional. The current wording would technically prevent us from adopting New Zealand Aotearoa's form of proportional representation, which seems at the very least unnecessary.
28	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition	9(a)	[new subclause]	a. converting all single-member electorates to multi-member districts of no fewer than three members each	This retains the core proposal entertained by the existing clause – this is basically 'Hare-Clarke' as used in the ACT and Tasmania's lower house. Adding three makes it clear what our minimal acceptable ask is, noting that the ideal is probably 4–6.
29	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition	9(b)	[new subclause]	b. adopting fully proportional voting systems (where all seats are allocated in line with the overall share of votes, using council-, state- or country-wide multi-member electorates), and/or	Makes it clear that we'd also be comfortable with a maximimal, 'party list' proportional system, similar to the Australian Senate, the NSW upper house, Spain, Netherlands, Scandi countries.
30	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition	9(c)	[new subclause]	c. adopting mixed proportional systems (where members elected from smaller electorates are supplemented to ensure each party’s total number of seats reflects its overall share of votes).	This is the model used in NZ Aotearoa, Scotland, Germany. Seen as a way to retain the value some seem in having a ~single~ 'local member', while still ensuring the composition of the parliament is proportional overall.
31	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Trial the use of randomly selected (‘by lot’) members of the community – chosen in a manner similar to jury selection – in public decision-making processes, to better incorporate the perspectives of ordinary people in decisions that affect them.	There were a variety of views on this proposal amongst VPC, so it has been referred to the forum for discussion and decision. Arguments for and against (please feel free to add more via the comment function on this cell): https://greenagenda.org.au/2019/11/sortition-and-the-joy-of-participation/ https://www.publicdeliberation.net/debating-sortition/ https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/political_representation_and_citizens_assemblies https://newdemocracy.com.au/docs/researchpapers/What%20Sortition%20Can%20Do%20PSA.pdf
32	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Introduce petition-based mechanisms to enable voters to initiate binding and direct statewide ballots on certain proposals, with reasonable thresholds and safeguards to ensure proposals are well-developed and explained.	Similar to the California 'ballot proposition' model. There were a variety of views on this proposal amongst VPC, so it has been referred to the forum for discussion and decision.
33	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Expand participatory and deliberative decision-making at state and local government level, including in areas such as budgeting and planning.	This is something our councillors support and are engaged in, so makes sense to call for it here.
34	heading	no change		Elections and political parties
35	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	non-substantive amendment	10	Minimise malapportionment and ensure as close to one-vote-one-value across all elections.	Ensure electoral boundaries are drawn so that each vote carries equal weight regardless of electorates.	'Malapportionment' was thought to be jargon and therefore unclear, so this reword attempts to address that.
36	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	11	Universally adopt compulsory preferential voting with comprehensive savings provisions to prevent unintentional informal voting.	Ensure that ballots are not excluded from the count because of unintentional errors.	Similar to above – the current wording appeared jargon-heavy, this reword attempts to address that. VPC also determined that we didn't need to be so overt and universally in favour of compulsory preferential voting (given it is unlikely that we have consensus on OPV vs. CPV in the party), and thought it better to have the clause focus on the 'vote-saving' goal. SA's vote saving system is an example of the latter in action.
37	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	12	Abolish group voting tickets and any mechanism that compromises voters' ability to express their genuine preferences.
38	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	13	Adopt automatic and same-day enrolment.
39	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	14	Have fixed terms at each level of government.
40	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	split	15	Fully enfranchise 16 and 17 year old people, prisoners, Australian citizens overseas, and permanent residents and temporary visa holders resident in Australia for more than twelve months.	Split into two clauses (see next row): Give 16 and 17-year-olds the optional right to vote in elections.	Two separate ideas ideally split into two separate clauses. This would also add 'optional', which is aligned with our federal policy on youth enfranschisement (current wording is a little vague on this question) and our recently updated local government policy.
41	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	split			Fully enfranchise prisoners, Australian citizens overseas, and permanent residents and temporary visa holders who have resided in Australia for more than twelve months.
42	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	deletion	16	Remove the corporate and landowner franchise.	<delete>	Already addressed in Local government policy (the only level in which it applies, thankfully) with necessary nuance, doesn't need to be here. In any case, the current wording is unecessarily technical.
43	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition			Ensure voters have access to in-person voting options in local government elections.	Adopting in-person voting options for local government elections would help address confusion and accessibility issues associated with postal-only voting status quo.
44	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	17	Remove any arbitrary cap on the number of local councillors in each local government area and for the number of councillors to be a standard ratio based on population.
45	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	18	Ban political donations, campaign expenditure and donations to any representative bodies, organisations or trusts for the purpose of supporting political campaigns from for-profit businesses and their directors.
46	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	19	Require political donations made by non-for-profit membership organisations including unions to be determined democratically and directly by its membership.
47	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	20	Maintain the cap on individual donations in state elections and introduce a cap for local government elections.	Apply consistent caps on political donations across state and local government elections.	Clearer to call for a simplified, system-side rule.
48	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	21	Have real-time disclosure of all political donations made over $1000.	Require real-time disclosure of all political donations made over a total of $1,000 for all levels of government.	Require' less passive than 'have', and make the system consistent.
49	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	non-substantive amendment	22	Institute strict caps on campaign expenditure, implemented by each candidate per electorate and timely disclosure of significant campaign expenditure, to apply to political parties, candidates, and third-party campaigns equally.	Institute strict caps on campaign expenditure, per electorate and per candidate, and enforce timely disclosure of significant campaign expenditure by parties, candidates and third-party campaigns.	To reduce wordiness of the original.
50	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition			Require all candidates for public office to complete and submit interests declarations by the close of nominations, to be published by the relevant electoral commission.	There were a variety of views on this proposal amongst VPC, so it has been referred to the forum for discussion and decision.
51	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	23	Remove the criminal history disqualification from eligibility to run as a candidate in a state election.	Remove the criminal history disqualification from eligibility to run as a candidate in an election.	No need to limit this to state elections.
52	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	non-substantive amendment	24	Electoral commissions set and enforce minimum guidelines for transparent and democratic selection of candidates by political parties.	Electoral commissions to set and enforce minimum guidelines for transparent and democratic selection of candidates by political parties.
53	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	25	Electoral commissions implement more stringent transparency and annual reporting requirements for political parties as a condition of registration.
54	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	26	Publish all authorised political communications, including online and broadcast advertising, in real-time on a publicly searchable database.	Publish all authorised political communications in a publicly searchable database soon after first publication, including online, broadcast and printed material.	Smooth out the sentence by moving types to the end. Plus, allow for a more realistic window for compliance ('soon after' rather than 'real-time').
55	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	27	Increase the per-vote reimbursable public funding level and provide access to public electoral, administrative and policy development funding for registered political parties on the basis of a sum per vote.
56	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	non-substantive amendment	28	Strengthen privacy, telemarketing and spam regulations regarding political campaigning and review exemptions for political parties on the management of personal information. Increase the per-vote reimbursable public funding level and provide access to public electoral, administrative and policy development funding for registered political parties on the basis of a sum per vote	Strengthen privacy, telemarketing and spam regulations regarding political campaigning and review exemptions for political parties on the management of personal information.	Second sentence is simply a duplicate of Aim 27.
57	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	29	Introduce truth in political advertising laws.
58	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Prevent the inclusion of prayer or other religious ceremonies from forming part of the official proceedings of any parliament or local government, excepting First Nations cultural ceremonies.	Important sentiment missing from current policy.
59	heading	no change		Parliament and cabinet
60	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	30	Ensure that the Parliamentary committee system is capable of robust oversight by, where practical, appointing a non-government chair to each standing policy committee, appointing a crossbench chair to standing integrity and oversight committees and ensuring every party in Parliament is represented on standing administrative committees.
61	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	deletion	31	Expand Victorian Parliament to improve representation and connection to local communities.	<delete clause>	Victoria already has relatively high levels of representation across three tiers of government, and there is limited evidence that simply increasing the number of MPs would, on its own, meaningfully improve democratic outcomes. Reforms that strengthen proportionality, representativity and community connection can be more directly pursued via the measures mentioned elsewhere in this policy, rather than here where the cause and effect are not particularly clear.
62	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	32	Adequately resource and remunerate elected officials at all levels of government and give remuneration tribunals the power to make determinations on all resourcing for elected officials, including staffing levels and accommodation.	Adequately resource and remunerate elected officials at all levels of government, and give remuneration tribunals the power to make determinations on all resourcing for elected officials, including staffing levels and accommodation.
63	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	33	Introduce a legislative and compulsory code of conduct for elected officials, including after the end of their term in office.
64	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	34	Appoint a Parliamentary standards commissioner who can investigate unethical behaviour by elected officials.	Ensure that parliamentary standards bodies investigate complaints about elected officials' unethical behaviour, publish findings where appropriate, and recommend proportionate sanctions or remedial action.	Shift focus from creating the commissioner (which has now happened) to saying what we actually want them to do.
65	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	35	Better regulate and scrutinise the role, legal status, powers and appointment of political staffers and Ministerial advisers.	Better regulate and scrutinise the role, legal status, powers and appointment of political staffers and ministerial advisers.
66	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	36	Introduce a five-year cooling off period to prevent Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, and their senior staff from engaging in lobbying for, taking an executive or management position in or obtaining a material benefit from any for-profit business which raises a potential and significant conflict of interest arising from their term in office.	Introduce a five-year cooling off period to prevent ministers, parliamentary secretaries, and their senior staff from engaging in lobbying for, taking an executive or management position in or obtaining a material benefit from any for-profit business which raises a potential and significant conflict of interest arising from their term in office.
67	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	37	Release of Ministerial diaries unredacted quarterly.	Require timely publication of ministerial diaries in a searchable format, with minimal redaction and subject only to clearly defined public interest exemptions.	Diaries are now shared, so this proposal shifts the wording to focus on the details of implementation. Total 'un-redaction' was also considered somewhat unrealistic.
68	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	38	Allow MPs to debate amendments, make statements and ask questions on the substance of all bills.
69	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	39	Allow non-government MPs to introduce bills and motions for debate and parliamentary vote regularly.	Require both houses of parliament to provide regular, guaranteed opportunities for non-government MPs to introduce bills and motions for debate and vote, rather than relying on government discretion.	Reword to make it clear what's missing from the status quo. In practice, Victoria's lower house is amongst the least tolerant of non-government bills and motions, and even parity with Victoria's upper house would be a huge improvement.
70	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	40	Require governments to produce documents requested by Parliament in a timely fashion.
71	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	41	Allow public servants and government and major project contractors to provide information to MPs in the public interest, without fear of repercussions.
72	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	42	Make matters of governance, executive, ministerial and parliamentary reform subject to an independent commission.
73	heading	no change		Integrity and anti-corruption
74	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	43	Build in open government principles and the presumption of proactive release of information in every level of government.
75	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	44	Strengthen the public's right to information by removing commercial-in-confidence exemptions from freedom of information requests.
76	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	45	Clarify and extend the powers of integrity and oversight institutions to allow them to effectively investigate corruption, police misconduct and misconduct in public office.
77	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition			Strengthen whistleblower protections across all sectors to ensure that whistleblowers are supported, protected and advocated for.	Important sentiment missing from current policy.
78	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	amendment – substantive	46	Give integrity and oversight institutions the power to self-initiate investigations into alleged misconduct or wrongdoing of any elected official, public sector executive, board member or appointee.	Ensure integrity and oversight institutions have the power to initiate investigations into alleged misconduct by any public sector official, executive, board member or appointee.	Shift to assurance rather than make an implicit claim about what doesn't exist now. Slight consolidation, 'public sector' includes executives and elected officials.
79	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Increase funding to integrity bodies, such as IBAC, to ensure they are not forced to limit their inquiries due to resource constraints.	IBAC in Victoria have openly stated that they can only investigate a fraction of the corruption cases that they are think are worth investigating.
80	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	addition		[new clause]	Ensure anti-corruption bodies are empowered to investigate all forms of corrupt conduct, including patterns of behaviour and misuse of public office that may not meet criminal thresholds but nonetheless undermine integrity and public trust.	The Greens and others have been calling for IBAC to be able to also investigate "soft corruption" or "grey corruption" -- corruption which isn't serious enough to fit the narrow criminal definition, but which is still very much corruption. Integrity bodies in other jurisdictions are able to do this.
81	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	47	Remove the limits on public hearings for integrity bodies.
82	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	48	Prohibit governments from misusing public funds in a targeted, discriminatory way to increase their re-election prospects.
83	aim ("The Greens want [to]...")	no change	49	Require governments to make public the results of all market and social research and polling conducted using public funds.