Weed the winner in Victoria's upper house

On Wednesday, it was confirmed Labor secured 15 seats and the coalition won 14. 

The cross bench is made up of four Greens, two from Legalise Cannabis Victoria and one member each from the Liberal Democrats, Animal Justice Party, Democratic Labor Party, One Nation and the Shooters, Farmers and Fishers.

Newly elected Legalise Cannabis Victoria MPs Rachel Payne and David Ettershank told reporters they believed decriminalising the drug for personal use was realistic.

"It's something to be worked through with the government in a logical and sensible way," Mr Ettershank said after the official declaration of results at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

"We will also seek to engage with other members of both houses to try and get as broad a consensus as possible around this really important and really obvious change."

Liberal MLC for Western Victoria Bev McArthur said she was "open to new ideas" when asked where she stood on the issue.

A spokesperson for the Victorian government told AAP it had no plans to legalise or decriminalise recreational cannabis.

There were calls to look into a similar model to the ACT, where individuals are allowed to possess, use and supply small quantities of cannabis as well as cultivate two plants per person at home.

Drug reform lobby group Unharm said the government needed to "get with the times".

"For many people a cannabis conviction is a pathway into the criminal justice system that ends up defining their life," Unharm chief executive Dr Will Tregoning said.

Nineteen of the 40 members elected to the upper house are new to parliament and Labor needs six crossbenchers to vote with it to pass legislation.

Several high-profile incumbents lost their seats including Reason Party Leader Fiona Patten, Animal Justice Party Leader Andy Meddick and independent Catherine Cumming, who was originally elected under the Derryn Hinch Justice Party.

Derryn Hinch lost his bid for a seat and his members Stuart Grimley and Tania Maxwell failed to get re-elected.

Former Labor minister-turned-Democratic Labour Party representative Adem Somyurek, who left the Labor Party under a cloud of branch stacking accusations, claimed the final seat in the Northern Metropolitan region after a tight battle with Ms Patten.

Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell was elected to Northern Victoria as the state's first One Nation representative while GP Sarah Mansfield became the first Greens MP from regional Victoria.

Deakin University senior politics lecturer Geoff Robinson said the Victorian system of using group voting tickets, which allows parties to direct their own preferences, often resulted in high turnover.

"The polarisation that we've seen in Victorian politics in a way led to an upper house that was more representative of public opinion," Mr Robinson said of the progressive-leaning crossbench. 

"There was a bit more of a pattern of sort of small left wing parties (dealing) with each other.

"Even though you could say Labor only got 37 per cent of the primary vote, they probably benefited by that."

Premier Daniel Andrews led Labor to a sweeping victory to secure a third term in power at the election on November 26, winning 56 out of 88 seats in the Victorian lower house - a bigger majority than it had in its last term.