Probe Into Cbd's 'phantom' Voters

The Age

Wednesday June 18, 2008

Kate Lahey, city reporter

A NINE-LEVEL storage building, full of boxes and paperwork, is also the registered address for more than 200 voters for Melbourne City Council elections.

With the State Government under pressure to order an electoral review of the City of Melbourne, the council has confirmed the storage building at 601 Little Collins has 218 registered voters, whose only connection to the city may be through their strata title investment in a section of floor space.

Investors pay an average $79,000 for a piece of floor space to rent out through Strata Storage, and automatically become ratepayers - and therefore voters - in the City of Melbourne.

Four Melbourne councillors and the Victorian Opposition have asked Local Government Minister Richard Wynne to urgently review the city's voting system, which operates under its own act, separate to other Victorian councils.

Mr Wynne is already moving to strip voting rights from city car parks and boat moorings, but he has so far not ordered a broader review. His spokesman, Dan Ward, said Mr Wynne would now look into Strata Storage.

"Having now been made aware of this matter, we are looking at the corporate structure of this building," he said. "When we have the full details, we will consider what actions are appropriate in the context of the current legislative amendments before the house."

The council election is run by post, and in the 2004 election 61.8% of voters were not residents. Of those, more than half were absentee owners, about a third were corporate representatives and the rest were "non-resident occupiers".

Greens MP Greg Barber said Mr Wynne needed to take a more comprehensive approach. "He's picking off one anomaly at a time, as he hears about them, but he's not fixing the fundamental problem, which is that it shouldn't be up to the council to make up a list of occupiers to determine who can vote."

Councillors Fiona Snedden, Brian Shanahan, Peter Clarke and Fraser Brindley wrote to Mr Wynne in April asking for a review.

© 2008 The Age

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