New political parties in Australia would require 1,500 members to be registered and would be blocked from using names similar to existing parties, under changes proposed by the Coalition government. The assistant minister for electoral matters, Ben Morton, on Thursday introduced four electoral bills into federal parliament to crack down on multiple voting and violence at polls, lower disclosure thresholds for political campaigners and raise the bar for party registration. The move has already prompted backlash from environmental campaign groups and the New Liberals, who believe the changes are directed at them, after a bitter registration dispute with the Liberal party. Morton told the lower house that political parties not currently represented in parliament would have three months to demonstrate they have a “genuine base of community support” and meet the 1,500-strong membership requirement – triple the current 500 members needed. The party registration integrity bill would allow the electoral commissioner to reject a party name that was considered “frivolous or vexatious” and would require them to reject a party name that used a word already in the title of an existing party.
Morton said the change was needed to reduce “voter confusion” as they would otherwise be “misled” by similar names. Commonsense exceptions would apply around words like “alliance”, “party” and “Australia”, he said. ABC election analyst Anthony Green has suggested the cumulative effect of the requirements could spell trouble for the Liberal Democrats.
The leader of the New Liberals, Vic Kline, told Guardian Australia he believed the bill was “directly aimed at us”. In June, the Australian Electoral Commission approved the registration of the New Liberals as a political party, despite warnings from the Liberal party it would result in widespread voter confusion. That decision is under internal review and is also likely to be appealed to the administrative appeals tribunal or federal court. Kline said the government was “moving the goalposts” on party membership but a surge of 300 new signups should see it clear the 1,500 bar. Although the naming rules are not retrospective, if the Liberals win the AEC review there could be a “brief lacuna while we go unregistered” that would mean the new rules applied to the New Liberals, he said. Liberal MP Jason Falinski said the bill “doesn’t change the rules for anyone that currently has approval” – which he said was regrettable because the New Liberals’ name was “dishonest” and a “rort”. Kline has denied attempting to mislead voters. The bills clarify what counts as “interference with political liberty”, specifying that “violence, obscene or discriminatory abuse, property damage and harassment or stalking” can constitute a breach of the existing section. The proposed legislation would also: raise the penalty for interference with political liberty to three years in prison reduce the period of pre-poll to a maximum of 12 days lower the expenditure threshold to register as a political campaigner from $500,000 to $100,000; and allow the electoral commissioner to classify someone a “designated elector” who must use a declaration vote to prevent them casting multiple votes. The reduced pre-poll period follows a backlash to a three-week pre-poll period in the 2019 election and an expansion of pre-poll sites – causing a massive rise in early voting and staffing issues for parties. Despite the slew of changes, some in the Coalition believe the bills did not go far enough, with Nicolle Flint speaking in the party room on Tuesday about the need to do more to protect candidates, especially on polling day. Before announcing her retirement, Flint publicly complained about allegedly being stalked during the 2019 campaign, which she attributed to political tactics of GetUp, despite no link between the individual she accused and the campaign group. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Falinski told Guardian Australia the package of legislation was not bad but “could’ve done more” both on the issue of electronic voting and campaigning on polling day. “It’s disappointing the legislation doesn’t include provision for the AEC to start investigating and experimenting with online voting,” he said. Falinski said the bill “doesn’t go near” reforms enacted in the UK and New Zealand banning canvassing on polling day or limiting it in the proximity of polling places as occurs in the Australian Capital Territory. The Australian Conservation Foundation democracy campaigner, Jolene Elberth, said while lowering the threshold for political campaigners may seem a small change “it would have the effect of silencing community voices”. “The proposed changes imply that advocating for a safe climate and a healthy environment is the same as campaigning for a political party,” she said. “Charities have no issue with further transparency, but we are not the same as political parties and should not be treated as such. Charities exist for a charitable purpose, while political parties exist for the purpose of getting elected and holding power.”