A video released on Thursday showing “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery meeting minor party candidates gave us a unique opportunity. It showed us exactly what it is that Druery whispers to his clients after years spent manipulating electoral systems across Australia for profit. The video, published by the Herald Sun, shows a brazen and often boastful display.
Druery is renowned for his ability to make or break aspiring minor party MPs through vote “harvesting”, whereby, for a fee, he gathers together a group of apparently disparate single-issue parties, then controls preferences flows within the group. Victoria’s electoral system is vulnerable to this in the upper house because it allows for group voting tickets.
Self-styled preference whisperer Glenn Druery featured in a video talking about his methods.Credit:Andrew Meares
Group voting means the political parties, not the voter, determine how preferences flow in the upper house ballot if the voter chooses to mark only the squares above the line. And that’s most of us: at the 2018 state election, only 8.9 per cent of voters numbered the boxes below the line.
Originally introduced to reduce informal voting, the group voting ticket system has since been phased out in every upper house across Australia except Victoria. This revelation once again makes clear why: group voting allows for candidates with very few primary votes to be swept into power via preference deals at the expense of much more popular candidates.
In the video, Druery claims he made a deal with Labor for an amenable crossbench, was able to deny four seats to the Greens, and was then paid tens of thousands of dollars by candidates he backed. He claims to control the parliamentary votes of the candidates, whom he calls “the family”, in one important respect. According to him, they agree not to change the electoral system if they are elected. When asked if reform was likely to happen in Victoria, Druery alleged the Andrews government was in on the lurk: “I am focused on the longer game, that is we’ve got to give the government, which will be the Andrews government, we’ve got to give them a crossbench they can work with.”
While it’s shocking to hear how one man believes he can determine the make-up of the state parliament, this is not the first time he has been a target of criticism. After the 2018 election, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten lodged a complaint against Druery with the Victorian Electoral Commission after he had carried out his cash-for-votes operation while working as a staffer to Justice Party founder and former Australian senator Derryn Hinch.
At the time, Patten, who had once hired Druery, told The Age that in preference discussions, Druery asked her team for a $5000 “upfront” fee to join his “family” of minor parties, and a success fee of $50,000 for each candidate elected. Druery confirmed that price for his services during the recent video.
When asked on Thursday why his government had not reformed the electoral system, Premier Daniel Andrews shrugged off questions, saying a post-election review could recommend changes. Andrews would know full well that a similar inquiry was held after the last election. It called for the issue to be examined by the electoral matters committee, then soon hit a dead-end.
Andrews described Druery as “someone who provides professional services and is paid to do so”. It appears that what Druery does is legal, and he has every right to be paid for his expertise. But let’s not mistake what is legal for what is fair and, more importantly, good for the wellbeing of democracy in Victoria. It’s not.
As the ABC’s chief election analyst Antony Green said on radio on Thursday, group voting tickets rort the electoral system. It is well beyond time that Victoria joined the rest of Australia and dumped them.
Until that happens, every Victorian voter can easily negate people such as Druery. When you go into the polling booth, vote below the line. You need to number only five squares, and this ensures your vote only goes to those you support.
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