Upper houses of parliament are critical to overseeing and scrutinising the actions of governments, and to providing representation to regional populations.

This report finds that the present design of Victoria’s upper house, the Legislative Council, reinforces urban domination of Victorian politics while also failing to act as an effective mechanism for scrutiny of government.

To address the present accountability, democratic and regional representation deficits, it recommends that:

• the present model of eight electoral regions comprised of five members be replaced with 22 electoral regions.
• Legislative Council elections be held on different dates than the general election of the Legislative Assembly.
• each region have two members elected using voluntary, optional preferential voting, with elections staggered.