Policy submission

1. Identify issues

Complete

We identify the major issues facing voters by reviewing current polling, news coverage, party and candidate announcements, civil society priorities and academic research.

2. Policy submission period

In progress

We open a public policy submission period, where anyone can submit a policy proposal using the form below. In particular, we’re looking for policies that address the major issues facing voters.

We review all submissions against our criteria and quality standards, and may follow up with submitters for further evidence or clarification.

After a submission has been received and reviewed, it will be published on our website for further public review. If you’re an expert or independent organisation, you can provide feedback and endorse or oppose policies — this feedback helps inform the next stages of the process!

This submission period for the 2026 Victorian state election will close on the 18th of October.

3. Building the shortlist

Once the submission period closes, we consolidate our internal research and public submissions into a shortlist of up to ten policies per issue area (plus up to 10 additional policies that address other issues).

4. Expert review & focus group

All shortlisted policies will be further reviewed by independent policy experts. Then, we run a focus group of everyday Australians — from all sides of politics — to help us determine the final 36 policies to be included in the tool, based on our selection criteria.

5. Final publication

We publish the final list of policies on our website and begin assessing candidates and parties to determine their support level for each policy. These assessments will also be published in our Transparency Centre, where anyone can query or suggest additional evidence if they feel a ‘support level’ has been unfairly assigned.

For each issue area (eg. Housing), we select four policies to be included in the Build a Ballot tool. We also select an additional four policies that do not address any of the core issues. We prioritise policies based on:

1. Political balance — policies should collectively represent a genuine range of political positions
2. Quality — we prioritise policies most likely to effectively address the relevant issue
   • Long-term stakes — would have significant intergenerational impacts, i.e. consequences that extend well beyond a single election cycle
   • Credibility — are supported by evidence; are endorsed by multiple organisations and/or experts
   • Civility — enable constructive and informed debate; do not actively harm communities
3. Relevance — are actively being discussed by the public
4. Understandability — are accessible and comprehensible

When submitting a policy, we advise you to keep this criteria in mind in order to maximise the chance of inclusion in the Build a Ballot tool.

A policy is a specific, actionable proposal. We look for proposals that:

• are active — they involve a ‘change’ rather than maintaining an existing system
• name a clear mechanism — such as spending, tax, or regulatory changes
• can be measured — it should be clear if and when a proposal has been implemented

The aim of the Build a Ballot tool is to provide voters with an easy way to quickly compare where parties and candidates as stand. As a result, we look for policies that strike a balance between being oversimplified and overly specific.

• We avoid general announcements or slogans that make it hard to accurately assess support level, limiting Build a Ballot’s ability to create meaningful comparisons. Example: ‘Get tough on crime’

• We tend not to prioritise highly specific policies that require significant context and could be difficult for everyday voters to understand. Example: ‘Designate NPM(s) to Fully Implement the OPCAT Treaty’

Most importantly, we look for policies that address the issues that voters care about the most.

We group policies by issue in the Build a Ballot tool because it helps users move through the questionnaire more quickly. We also do this because we believe policies are best discussed in the context of the issue they are attempting to address, rather than as political slogans.

These issues are intended to be broad so that they can capture a range of relevant policies. For the upcoming Victorian state election, the eight ‘issue areas’ in the Build a Ballot tool will likely be…

• Housing
• Community Safety
• Transport
• Energy
• Climate
• Health
• Education
• Budget Management

For the Victorian election, we will also be trialling the inclusion of an additional four policies that do not address any of the core issues.

Please note: while we don’t expect this to change significantly, we may make adjustments to the issue areas before policies are finalised. You can learn more about how we select issue areas in our methodology.

Policy submissions that meet quality standards are more likely to progress through the process and be included in the Build a Ballot tool. Here’s what we look for…

Sources

• Provide a direct link for every factual claim — avoid unsourced statistics
• Refer to primary sources (government data, peer-reviewed research, official reports) where possible
• Use Australian sources where possible; otherwise international evidence

Evidence

• Use quantitative and current data where possible
• State research findings as accurately as possible — e.g. "modest increase" not "significant increase" if that's what the research says
• Provide evidence for both sides, where possible

Writing

• Use plain language — no jargon, active voice
• Use full sentences throughout
• Aim for 2–3 sentences per section

What we're not doing

• Avoid recommendations or conclusions — present rather than advocate
• Avoid boilerplate filler ("this is a complex issue…")

We can’t publish your policy submission if it…

• Contains defamatory, inappropriate or derogatory language
• Doesn’t include links to independent sources and supporting research
• Isn’t something that the state government could plausibly implement (eg. it addresses an issue governed by the federal parliament)