Changes to QLD election laws could face High Court challenge
The Human Rights Law Centre today released expert advice by a team of Queensland barristers led by Stephen Keim SC that warns that the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed changes to Queensland electoral laws could face a High Court challenge.
The Electoral and Other Legislation (Accountability, Integrity and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 is currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee with hearings starting next Monday. The proposed legislation would limit political donations and spending in Queensland elections.
Alice Drury, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the proposed law is well-intentioned, but contains serious flaws in the way it would lock out community groups, charities and other not-for-profits from election debates.
“It’s critical that charities and local community groups are able to engage in election debates on the work they do, whether it’s about women’s rights, stopping gambling harm or protecting the environment. We’ve been warning that this proposed legislation will muzzle those vital voices. Now there are expert Queensland barristers concluding that the proposed laws could breach the Australian Constitution and be invalid,” said Ms Drury.
The proposed laws will impose onerous compliance obligations on any community group or charity that spends more than $1,000 on election advocacy with criminal penalties for non-compliance. The proposed laws will also stop someone from donating more than $4,000 per four-year term (or less than $20 per week) to a charity or community group for election-related advocacy. As a result, charities and community groups will struggle to raise funds to speak out in elections on the matters they work on. In contrast, corporations will not face any restrictions on the income they can use on campaigning, and will be able to spend up to $1 million each on election advertising.
Mr Keim SC’s legal advice highlights that “rather than levelling the playing field, the imposition of restrictions is likely to push charities and NGOs at the lower end of the expenditure continuum completely out of the political debate.”
The advice states that the $1,000 election spending threshold to trigger compliance obligations by charities and community groups is “absurdly low”. It concludes that burdens placed by the proposed laws on communication by charities and not-for-profit groups are not justified and parts of the law could be invalid for breaching the Australian Constitution.
“It is critical that these laws don’t silence the voice of charities and ordinary Queenslanders while leaving big businesses to run large-scale election campaigns. If these problems in the proposed legislation are not fixed, the Queensland Government could inadvertently worsen political inequality in Queensland and face a High Court challenge,” said Drury.
“We look forward to working with the Palaszczuk Government to fix the problems in the proposed legislation so it can achieve its aims without unintended fallout,” said Drury.
Read the Joint Memorandum of Advice prepared by Stephen Keim SC, Kate Slack and Arron Hartnett here.
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Michelle Bennett, Communications Director: 0419 100 519