This November, Victorians will elect the 60^th Parliament of Victoria. The Victorian Electoral Commission's role is to ensure that all Victorians actively participating in their democracy and to deliver high quality, accessible electoral services with innovation, integrity and independence.

The Victorian Electoral Commission’s regulatory approach has been made public to provide transparency and predictability in Commission's compliance responses. The Commission have taken feedback from the public on board, and this has matured and improved their responses to non-compliance with the law. This marks an important reset of the VEC’s approach that is consistent with the practice of modern regulators.

The Electoral Act 2002 (Vic) (Electoral Act) establishes the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) and the regulatory scheme administered by the VEC. The Electoral Act requires the VEC to facilitate democratic and transparent electoral processes for all Victorians.

The Electoral Act also places obligations on those participating in State elections.

The VEC is required to regulate electoral participants, including:

• electors
• candidates in elections and elected members
• registered political parties, their officeholders and their members
• those who give or receive political donations
• those who campaign or fundraise, and
• those who publish or distribute electoral campaign material.

The VEC has adopted a constructive compliance approach for its regulatory activities, which focuses on providing electoral participants with resources to understand and comply with their obligations. Where a person or organisation fails to comply with their obligations, compliance action is taken proportionate to the VEC’s assessment of harm. The constructive compliance approach is consistent with the VEC’s vision and purpose: