Federal laws ensuring that parties cannot have similar names improve the clarity of electoral choice and communication, the High Court says.
The court on Friday released the reasons behind the March 9 majority decision to uphold the electoral laws after a challenge by Liberal Democratic Party candidate John Ruddick.
Mr Ruddick's lawyers argued the amendments to federal laws, which came into force in September 2021 to ensure parties could not use similar names, were constitutionally invalid as they breached the implied freedom of political communication.
The Liberal Party has held concerns for many years that the Liberal Democrats benefit from voters casting a ballot for the minor party's candidates by mistake.
Many believe the Liberal Democrats' David Leyonhjelm was elected on the basis of the "donkey vote" and confusion over his party's title when his name appeared in the first position on a record-size NSW Senate ballot paper in 2013.
Mr Leyonhjelm himself acknowledged, in evidence presented to the court, that "you can't deny that some people would have ... mistaken us for the Liberals".
From 2010 to 2019, the Liberal Democratic Party polled better in every general election where it drew an "above-the-line" position on the Senate ballot paper to the left of the Liberal Party than in any general election where it drew a position to the right of the Liberal Party.
"The constraint implied by the requirement of 'choice' is that the people must have the ability to make an informed choice," a summary of the court's reasons said.
"Proof that a law burdens the implied freedom requires that the existing freedom is curtailed or restricted in some way.
"The purpose of the 2021 amendments was to reduce voter confusion, and their likely effect was to improve the clarity, and hence the quality, of electoral choice and communication on government or political matters."
However, Justice Simon Steward said the electoral amendments "may rightly be characterised as heavy-handed".
"Conferring upon this country's two major political parties enduring monopolies over the words 'liberal' and 'labor' (or 'labour') for the purposes of party registration ... and as a solution to voter confusion, may be unappealing," he said.
The LDP is awaiting a decision by the Australian Electoral Commission on a proposed change of name to the "Liberty & Democracy Party", which would use the abbreviation "Liberty Democrats".
It is hoped the name can be registered before the calling of the federal election, due in May.
