Independents have accused the Albanese government of attempting to “rig” electoral rules in a “major party stitch-up” which the billionaire Clive Palmer has already said he will take to the high court.
On Friday the special minister of state, Don Farrell, announced details of Labor’s electoral reform bill, including raising public funding to $5 a vote, a $20,000 cap on individual donations and an $800,000 cap on spending per electorate.
Although the $90m federal spending cap is likely to only impact mega-campaigns such as Clive Palmer’s United Australia party, the seat-by-seat limit would also harm emerging parties and independents, who often need to spend big to raise their profile against candidates of major parties with well-established brands.
Labor hopes to pass the bill with bipartisan Coalition support, although Farrell acknowledged on Friday that he “cannot say at this stage that we have agreement” to do so.
After foreshadowing a high court case in March, Palmer confirmed on Friday he “will challenge these unconstitutional acts which will suppress freedom”.
Palmer claimed the bill was “designed to rig elections” and would “hinder the independents, the regular Australians, from standing for parliament”.
“Labor and the Liberals working together on this issue is a disgrace,” he said in a statement. “The only hope for Australian people is if the high court looks at the constitution and the implied rights of freedom of speech.”
The independent senator David Pocock said he was “deeply concerned that the legislation being introduced on Monday is a major party stitch-up that subverts parliamentary process and seeks to lock out more community independents”.
“This is a secret deal cooked up between the major parties, who are clearly terrified of minority government,” he said in a statement.
“These are major reforms with far reaching impacts and the suggestion that they won’t be subject to a Senate inquiry is damaging to our democracy.”
Spending and donations caps were backed by the joint standing committee on electoral matters in June 2023, but Pocock noted that it set out on “high-level principles” without recommending caps of a particular size nor examining the drafting of a particular bill.
Pocock argued the truth-in-advertising bill – which will be introduced at the same time but lacks Coalition support – is “essential”, calling for it to be “put in place ahead of the next election”, including a ban on the use of generative artificial intelligence.
Earlier, the independent MP Kate Chaney, one of six successful teals newly elected in 2022 after raising more than $1m for their campaigns, warned that the bill “appears [to] lock in the major parties and lock out any new competitors”.
“The popularity of the major parties is at an all-time low, with one in three Australians voting for a minor party or independent at the last election,” she told Radio National.
“But instead of trying to earn back the trust of voters, this bill is a desperate attempt by the big parties to rig the rules, squeeze out the competition and protect their patch.
“Both parties are running scared of the possibility of a bigger crossbench that will continue to hold them to account.”
Chaney said a new independent would have to comply with an $800,000 spending cap, while “it appears that each political party can spend $90m, shifting that money around to support any member who is being threatened by a newcomer”.
A spokesperson for Climate 200 said legislation that made “such profound changes to foundations of our democracy should be subject to close scrutiny”, warning that rushing the bill “risks making the system less equitable and harder for challengers to fairly contest elections”.
The independent MP Kylea Tink, whose seat of North Sydney is being abolished, said the bill “will create an uneven playing field and they will make it harder for independents to campaign fairly and effectively at future elections”.
Senator Tammy Tyrrell also signalled opposition, warning that “election reform will never be a fair fight when it’s done by Labor and the Liberals”.
Farrell told reporters in Adelaide the government knew “this reform would face some challenges”.
Asked if the laws were designed to benefit major parties and target Palmer and Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 funding aggregator, Farrell said: “The short answer is no.
“This is designed to take big money out of Australian politics. We’re not targeting individuals, we’re targeting the system that allows an uncapped amount of money to be spent on elections.
“We don’t want to go down the track of the American election system. We want to cap the amount of money people can spend – and that applies to anybody.
“This is all about making sure that ordinary Australians can participate.
“The Australian electoral system should not work on the basis that the only people who can be elected into parliament are people who are sponsored by billionaires.”
Despite the fact the caps do not commence until July 2026, Farrell claimed that the bill needed to pass this year “so that the [Australian Electoral Commission] and the political parties and the independents can start the process” so that by the following election, due by 2028, everybody is in a position to implement the new system.
Labor proposes to cap spending and donations on a calendar year basis, with totals reset in the new year or after a federal election, and the level of caps indexed once per cycle after the election.
Receipt of donations or gifts from an individual donor would be capped at $20,000 a candidate for independents or per state division for political parties.
Donors would be prevented from giving an aggregate of 30 times the gift cap (initially $600,000), with separate limits in each state and territory.
