Recent and proposed changes to electoral laws

Updated: 18 February 2022

There have been a number of recent amendments made to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

On 16 February 2022, the following Bills were passed by the Parliament:

These amendments:

  • allow regulations to be made to temporarily expand the existing secure telephone voting method, currently available for sight impaired persons and Antarctic voters, to voters directed to self-isolate or quarantine under a public health order;
  • require registered political parties and disclosure entities to use their registered name, and provides some flexibility in how they present their names in an authorisation for electoral communications; and
  • prohibit foreign persons and entities from authorising electoral communications, fundraising or directly incurring electoral expenditure of more than $1000 and increases the penalty for misleading or deceiving an elector.

On 13 December 2021, the following electoral legislation amendments relating to the scrutiny of Senate elections and the holding of elections during emergencies received Royal Assent. The AEC is working to implement these recent legislative amendments and will provide further information and guidance on this website.

On 13 December 2021, the following electoral legislation amendments received Royal Assent. Parliament passed amendments relating to the circumstances under which individuals and organisations are required to register as significant third parties (previously political campaigners) and the annual disclosure requirements for candidates, Senators and members of the House of Representatives. For further information, please see the Financial disclosure legislative changes page, email fad@aec.gov.au or call us on 02 6271 4552.

To note, the following electoral reform bills are currently before Parliament:

These proposed changes relate to voter identification, the candidate qualification checklist, the implementation of optional preferential voting and the arrangement of candidate names on ballot papers.

In September 2021 Parliament passed amendments relating to party registration, electoral offences and some of the AEC’s operational processes at election time, in:

For political parties

For further information, please see the party registration page, email fad@aec.gov.au or call us on 02 6271 4552.