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Vic legislative council a crowded house

Victoria's Legislative Council will be crowded with 11 different parties in the chamber, the final count has revealed.

Fiona Patten reacts as she's re-elected to the Victorian upper house
Fiona Patten's re-election to Victoria's upper house has been confirmed. (AAP)

Victorians have voted in a rabble of crossbenchers into the upper house, with 11 parties to fill the chamber.

More than two weeks after the November 24 state election, the final upper house calculations were revealed on Tuesday.

Keeping in theme with the landslide win in the lower house, Labor has taken out 18 of the 40 upper house seats.

The Liberal-Nationals coalition has 11 seats - 10 Liberal and one National.

"Just as the Victorian community is a very diverse group of people, as so there is a large group of people in the legislative council," Liberal leader in the council David Davis told reporters on Tuesday.

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The Victorian Greens also took a hit and are down from five to just one - leader Samantha Ratnam.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Jeff Bourman is back in along with Reason Party leader Fiona Patten.

"It has been quite a rollercoaster of a campaign, but the waiting game I have to tell you is one of the most nerve racking things I have ever been through," Ms Patten told reporters.

Ms Patten said knowing the Andrews Labor government would still need her vote, she plans on continuing her success from first term by pushing progressive policies.

She also said she wanted to see reform on preferences in the upper house following her complaint about so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery who brokered deals among minor parties for large sums of cash.

"We need to look at this idea that you can make money out of elections, the fact that someone can stand to receive half a million dollars for preference whispering has to end," Ms Patten said.

Derryn Hinch's Justice Party has three successful candidates and there are two Liberal Democrats.

Transport Matters, Sustainable Australia and the Animal Justice Party will all have one MP each too.

Catherine Cumming, MP-elect for the Derryn Hinch Justice Party said the team would be working hard to get a sex offenders public register created.

She said the group would still have to work out how they would structure themselves in the chamber, such as one of them becoming a parliamentary leader.

"We as a group will be looking at state issues and we expect that every state issue we'll be able to address over the next four years," Ms Cumming said.

Parliament will return for a one day sitting on December 19, with a radically different seating arrangement to last term.

The re-elected Andrews Labor government has 55 seats in the 88-seat lower house, with plenty of first-time MPs voted in.

The Liberal-Nationals are down to just 27 seats combined.

The Liberals last week made former treasurer Michael O'Brien their new leader after Matthew Guy resigned following the election smashing.


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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