After three days in court discussing the font size a former MP used on his corflutes, the matter of the Australian Electoral Commission v Craig Kelly has been adjourned.
Both sides may have more to say on the matter, the court heard, after the attorney general’s department got involved because Kelly’s case could affect how the legislation itself is interpreted or lead to legislative change.
On the eve of the 2022 federal election, when Kelly was running for the United Australia party, the AEC sought an urgent injunction on Kelly’s posters, saying they were not compliant. Electoral communications must have a “legible” authorisation line saying who is responsible for them.
The AEC says the information – the name and address of the person who authorised the material – must be “reasonably prominent” and “legible at a distance at which the communication is intended to be read”.
The AEC stipulations also include that it must be in a text that contrasts with the background, but it does not mention a specific font size.
Kelly had initially had a batch printed with the authorisation line in an eight-point font, but enlarged it to a 24-point font after the AEC sent him a warning. He also had stickers printed to cover the eight-point font with the larger font.
The injunction was not granted back then, and the matter has been in the federal court this week.
The court has so far heard discussions on how close one might have to stand to a poster to read an eight-point font, whether people passing by in cars might be able to read an authorisation line, and whether Kelly was justified in using that size because other parties and independent candidates do.
Kelly’s barrister, Dr Christopher Ward, has argued that electoral officials decided the signs were non-compliant based on “an entirely uncertain or possibly arbitrary assessment”, and that they were in fact compliant.
The AEC’s correspondence became “increasingly agitated with more and more severe threats”, he said. Kelly could cop a $26,600 fine.
Ward submitted that the electoral commissioner could stipulate that the standard corflute – which is 600mm by 900mm – have a standard font size.
“It would be a no brainer for the commissioner to satisfy everybody by saying you must have the particulars in a particular font at a particular height,” he said.
Kelly, who lost his seat of Hughes at that election, said earlier this week he relied on the company that designed the posters to have the correct authorisation. The posters were based on a UAP template, he said, but altered to make his own name more prominent than the party’s.
The AEC’s counsel, Christopher Tran, has argued there were 22 alleged contraventions, where the font was too small, and that campaign materials were obliged to be legible so voters knew that they were self-promotional.
Justice Steven Rares has now reserved his decision and adjourned the case.
