Back during the 2019-2022 term, the then Coalition government introduced two major changes to party registration law. The first was to increase the registration threshold from 500 to 1,500 members (parliamentary parties excepted). The second was a ban on parties using words that were contained in the name of an earlier registered party.
Party registration and deregistration were frozen for nearly three months during the Dunkley and Cook by-elections but are now free to resume with the writs being returned. Of the eight parties that climbed Mount 1,500 to be newly registered for the 2022 election or shortly afterwards, five are already deregistered and a sixth is being considered. As a result, the first half of the expected 2022-25 term has so far seen the largest net decline in parties of any first half of a term.
Parties registered for 2022 election: 38
Parties registered since 2022 election: Three (one party deregistered entirely, and one was deregistered before registering under a new name)
Parties deregistered since 2022 election: 13 (one tactical deregistration, one reregistered under a new name, one under review)
Parties currently registered: 28
Net change for term: -10
Parties applying for registration: 0
Parties being considered for deregistration: Five (expected that at least two of the five will be deregistered)
The 2010-13 term saw a major ramp-up in registrations as parties sought to take advantage of group ticket voting and preference harvesting. There was a high party mortality rate in the 2013-16 term but also a high rate of new signups. Group ticket voting was abolished in 2016 but because this only happened late in the term it did not much affect party registrations. The 2016-19 term saw many of these parties giving up — with a modestly smaller number of new registrations — but just abolishing group ticket voting had not been enough to stop uncompetitive parties from forming and running in large numbers.
In the 2019-22 term, there was a lot of attrition even under the old rules, but the increase in the membership requirement from 500 to 1,500 members still disposed of 13 parties and resulted in others failing to register or not even trying.
As readers will detect from snarky comments about some of the parties below, this is a good thing! Running on a federal ballot is a privilege to be earned based on evidence of significant public support. Letting parties that will get no votes run has costs in terms of informal voting for the House of Representatives, voter confusion for the Senate and slower counting.
If the list is slimmed down over time to a couple of dozen parties or so, that is still plenty of choices, and new movements that develop serious support will still easily be able to register parties.
2022-25 Term: Registrations
The following new parties have registered in this term and are still registered.
Dai Le and Frank Carbone Network
A new parliamentary party created for Dai Le, elected as an independent in 2022.
Libertarian Party
This is the former Liberal Democrats which re-registered under its new name following the disallowance of its previous name under the new party names laws. The party’s proposed new name has attracted no objections but there have been objections to its logo, including one from the Coalition, which has been dismissed. The Coalition can appeal (firstly via internal review then via the courts) but in the meantime, the logo is registered. The party cleared the bar comfortably, having 1,632 of 1,650 submitted names accepted for random testing — being allowed seven refusals out of 53 (there were three).
2022-25 Term: Now Defunct Registrations
Voices for the Senate (later Independent Voices for the Senate)
A late registration for 2022, the party was a failed attempt to translate the “Voices” concept to the Senate that, despite a very long run-up, was unable to get enough names to get registered in time. Its registration succeeded after the election but it was later deregistered for not replying to a notice, having taken no electoral action in its time as a registered party apart from changing its name.
2022-25 Term: Possible Attempts
Troy Stolz has tweeted that he intends to register a “Whistleblowers for Integrity” party.
2022-25 Term: Failed Attempts
Health Australia Party (HAP)
The Health Australia Party was deregistered in April 2022. It applied for review and challenged aspects of the AEC’s reviewing methods. In response, the AEC changed its treatment of cases where a person is listed as a member of two parties for registration purposes, such that now they will be contacted and asked which party they wish to be a member of. With this change, the HAP were given a third go in mid-2023. It supplied 1,650 names but only 1,542 were accepted for random testing. It was therefore allowed two denials of membership out of 33 but had six.
2022-25 Term: Deregistrations
Australian Progressives (October 22, 2022, insufficient members, under review)
An ongoing saga: The Australian Progressives have to this stage never actually passed the 1,500-member test but survived for the 2022 federal election after winning an internal review against supposedly only having 185 matchable names at their second attempt. At the third attempt, the party supplied 1,591 names of which 1,531 were accepted for random testing. The party was allowed two denials of membership out of 34 but had three and was deregistered. On June 12, 2023 the party posted that it had been granted a fourth attempt to prove 1,500 members because of “concerns about a particular aspect of the party membership testing process”. On October 18, the party posted that it had proceeded to the random member testing stage and on November 21 it posted that the AEC was checking its membership.
Australian Values Party (AVP) (August 7, 2023, voluntary deregistration)
Gone but not forgotten: One of the class of 2022, Heston Russell told 6 News in June 2023 that he had disbanded the party. The AVP had no notable electoral success and was frequently overshadowed by controversies involving its founder but did manage to cover itself in glory in the 2022 Victorian election with a hilarious video sting against “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery.
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party (DHJP) (May 17, 2023, voluntary deregistration)
Over the electoral hill: A two-election wonder (Senate 2016 and Victoria 2018), DHJP polled weakly in 2019 and 2022 and has now given up.
Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance (November 6, 2023, voluntary deregistration)
Another of the class of 2022: Voluntarily deregistered a few days after being listed for potential deregistration under the 1,500-member rule. Founder Drew Pavlou announced he needed to “lay down foundations” for his future life instead of continuing to maintain the party.
Federal ICAC Now (April 27, 2023, voluntary deregistration)
Return to base: Its mission having been accomplished (no thanks to its risible vote tally) this party soon deregistered itself.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (July 19, 2022, party names rules, now reregistered)
As noted in the previous tracker, the LDP was able to manage one last hurrah under its old, now-disallowed name via the diabolical trick of withdrawing its application to change its name. This doomed it to deregistration soon after the election but that didn’t matter as it has plenty of members and has now reregistered as the Libertarian Party.
Local Network (October 16, 2023, voluntary deregistration)
Gone more local… then gone? This Tasmanian-centred party, formerly the Local Party, has attracted frequent criticism from yours truly for falsely claiming its candidates are independents. In reality, they go through a preselection process and the party expects commitments to certain ideas from its candidates. It gave up its federal registration to concentrate on making incorrect claims about its candidates being independents in the Tasmanian state election instead. After this failed (it ran in two seats, polling less than 1%) the party announced it was folding in Tasmania as well, though the concept may be rehashed in the ACT (which is about the only place where a “party of independents” makes any sense because of discrimination against independents in ballot column access).
Rex Patrick Team (October 24, 2022, voluntary deregistration)
Former parliamentary part: After Rex Patrick lost his seat the party chose to deregister rather than seeking to prove 1,500 members.
Seniors United Party of Australia (June 29, 2022, failure to respond to a notice)
Legacy survivor: This party was able to stay registered for the 2022 election — despite having never proved it had 1,500 members — because it won a review of a previous deregistration decision under the old rules. Unsurprisingly it didn’t last long after the election.
TNL (The New Liberals) (November 28, 2023, failure to respond to a notice)
A slight hitch on the road to power: The former New Liberals had their original name disallowed after the Liberal Party won an internal review against their name based on the pre-2022 rules. Under an obscure abbreviation that sounded like either a boring TV news show or perhaps a foot care treatment, they polled stuff-all at the 2022 election despite their ludicrous social media “polling results” and claims that they would soon be in majority government. In November 2023 they were deregistered after being listed on October 19, 2023 as under consideration for deregistration for insufficient membership. As of January 2024, at least one 2022 TNL candidate (Chris Schmidt, Sturt) has announced his intention to contest the next election as such, but it is not clear whether the party will seek to be reregistered.
United Australia Party (September 8, 2022, tactical voluntary deregistration)
Although the UAP is a party sitting in Parliament through its Victorian Senator Ralph Babet, it has chosen not to be an AEC-registered party for now because it can’t be bothered with the paperwork. The plan is to register again later — which is fine so long as no-one calls a snap election when the UAP doesn’t expect it. Because there must be time for objections to a new party’s name, a parliamentary party can’t simply reregister as soon as an election is called. There are also question marks about the party’s ability to reregister under the UAP name or any confusingly similar name (see separate article).
Western Australia Party (August 2, 2023, failure to respond to a notice)
In May 2023 the AEC announced that it was considering deregistering the party for failure to respond to an eligibility review notice. On 2 August the party was deregistered.
2022-25 Term: Potential Deregistrations
Parties under review for not having 1,500 members are generally given a second chance to prove membership and sometimes go on to survive.
Australian Democrats
Under review since October 27, 2023 for possibly not having 1,500 members. This nostalgia party’s persistence in this day and age is somewhere between completely pointless ballot clutter and actual deception of voters that it is still meaningfully the same movement. I have no idea why these people, whoever they are, persist.
Australian Federation Party (AFP)
Likely to go under: The product of numerous mergers of random right-wing micro-parties, the AFP is a particularly poor performer at elections (its terrible name doesn’t help) and has been under review since December 19, 2023 for not responding to a notice, suggesting it is likely to be deregistered soon. Its website is down.
Health Environment Accountability Rights Transparency (HEART)
Under review since December 13, 2023 for possibly not having 1,500 members. This is the former Involuntary Medical Objectors Party (IMOP), one of two misleadingly named and very similar “don’t call us anti-vax” parties on the list recently. The other, Health Australia Party, was deregistered in 2022. On September 13, 2023 a merger between these parties to form HEART was announced but on October 27 it was announced that “HAP has since decided to reverse the merger”. The Australian health crank movement is in danger of not having a party on the ballot because its parties cannot work together and none of us can get enough popcorn for this.
Kim for Canberra (KFC)
Under review since October 30, 2023 for possibly not having 1,500 members, KFC is the vehicle for Canberra legal scholar Kim Rubenstein, whose push for ACT Senate was overshadowed by later entrant David Pocock.
Reason Australia
Reportedly folding: Under review since October 25, 2023 for possibly not having 1,500 members, the former Sex Party has not really amounted to a lot since being renamed in 2017 outside Fiona Patten retaining her Victorian group ticket voting seat in 2018 (she lost in 2022). On December 20, 2023 6 News announced the party is going to disband.
This is an edited version of Kevin Bonham’s original blog post.
