A parliamentary committee investigating the last federal election wants tough new rules on behavior around polling stations after a campaign that “felt like an attack on our democracy”.
A report by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Affairs presented on Tuesday says behavior at polling stations was so bad that 550 people complained to the Australian Electoral Commission about “harassment and intimidation”. Police recorded a 17 percent increase in threats against candidates.
“Something happened in the 2025 federal election – something that was seen as an attack on our democracy,” committee chair and ALP MP Jerome Laxale said when presenting the report.
“Many described this attack by third parties identified in the submissions as Plymouth Brethren and Advance as a fundamental disruption to the foundations of our free and fair voting process.”
Citing numerous submissions from politicians and the public, the committee found in an interim report that a large number of third-party campaigners gathered at the polling booths and formed “a large and formidable hooliganism” in the contested seats that people had to contest while trying to vote.
One participant in the Ipswich committee meeting he described the experience as “totally unlike any experience I’ve had,” and “more like a war zone than a polling booth”.
The committee’s deputy chair, independent MP Monique Ryan, agreed there was a “clear increase in the risk to personal safety”.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured in a polling place if we don’t act.”
The report recommended a tough crackdown on campaigners’ behavior, the extension of an exclusion zone outside polling stations, and a new definition of “domestic interference” in elections.
The committee did not say how big the “campaign zone” outside polling booths should be, but noted that the Australian Electoral Commission’s six-metre perimeter helped create an impact.
The government should introduce a legal definition, or criminal offense, of “domestic interference” in elections to ensure no player can use organized violence to intimidate citizens into not voting or participating, the committee said.
And a new code of conduct and registration scheme for campaigners near polling booths should be developed so they can be identified and controlled, and stricter rules put in place on how campaign materials are approved.
The interim report stressed that many of the third party campaigners had run significant campaigns “without proper transparency about who they are”. The electoral commission should find new laws to capture “important third parties” so that “coordinated participation in the electoral process is adequately achieved”, the report said.
The brothers have denied the need to register as a third party because they insist thousands of its members were personally motivated to campaign, organizing themselves in small groups, without influence or participation from the church itself.
The committee also proposed to reduce campaign scores after what independent MP Zali Steggall called “a crazy amount of corflutes and cover”, and another presenter described as “Hunger Games” as different campaigners compete for positions around the booths.
Several findings were rejected by the Union members of the committee, who particularly objected to the mention of members of the Plymouth Brethren.
“What is worrying is that the conduct of one of parliament’s key committees has been reduced to a witch-hunt of Australians based on their religious beliefs,” the dissenting Coalition report said.
“Members of the union are very disturbed by the movement of any political party against another group on the basis of their religion, race, gender or belief.”
Other proposals “will expand the reach of government control and enforcement over ordinary political participation”, the Union said, which “will burden grassroots participation and which rests in concern with the freedom of political communication guaranteed by the constitution”.
Michael Bachelor is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigative editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, written two books and won many journalism awards, including the Gold Walkley.Connect through X or email address.
