Electoral Act 1907

Despite anything in sections 62E to 62H, on the commencement of section 63 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2000 any political party that is at that time a parliamentary party becomes a registered political party by operation of this subsection.

Subsection (1) only applies to a political party if the party was in existence on 14 June 2000 and at least one member of the party was a member of the Assembly or the Council on that day.

The registration of a political party under subsection (1) ceases to have effect at the end of the period of 3 months from the day on which section 63 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2000 commences unless, within that period, the secretary of the political party provides the Electoral Commissioner with the information and documents referred to in section 62E(4)(a), (b), (c), (e) and (f).

[Section 62I inserted: No. 36 of 2000 s. 63; amended: No. 64 of 2006 s. 53.]

62J. Refusal of registration, grounds for etc.

In this section —

application abbreviation means the abbreviation or acronym (if any) set out under section 62E(4)(b) in a political party’s application for registration;

application name means the name stated under section 62E(4)(a) in a political party’s application for registration;

existing party means another party —

that is a parliamentary party; or

that is a registered political party; or

at least one member of which is a member of the Parliament of the Commonwealth;

public body name means the name, or an abbreviation or acronym of the name, of a prominent public body;

registered abbreviation, of a registered political party, means the abbreviation or acronym (if any) of the name of the political party entered in the register;

registered name, of a registered political party, means the name of the political party entered in the register;

word includes an acronym.

The Electoral Commissioner must refuse to register a political party if it is not an eligible political party.

The Electoral Commissioner may refuse to register a political party if the Electoral Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds that information set out in, or documents required to accompany, the application are incorrect.

The Electoral Commissioner is to refuse to register a political party if the party’s application name or application abbreviation —

has more than 4 words; or

is obscene or offensive; or

is the name, or an abbreviation or acronym of the name, of an existing party; or

so nearly resembles the name, or an abbreviation or acronym of the name, of an existing party that it is likely to be confused with or mistaken for the name, abbreviation or acronym; or

includes the word “royal” or the word “independent”; or

includes a word of which a letter, other than the first letter, is a capital letter; or

would otherwise be likely to cause confusion if registered.

Subsection (3)(c) or (d) does not apply if the existing party is related to the party in respect of which the application is made.

For the purposes of subsection (4), the existing party is related to the party in respect of which the application is made if —

one is a part of the other party; or

both are parts of the same political party.

Subsection (3)(ea) does not apply if the word is an acronym.

The Electoral Commissioner may refuse to register a political party if the party’s application name or application abbreviation —

is a public body name; or

so nearly resembles a public body name that it is likely to be confused with or mistaken for the public body name.

The Electoral Commissioner must refuse to register a political party if —

the party’s application name or application abbreviation contains a word that is in the registered name or registered abbreviation of a registered political party (the affected party); and

the application for registration is not accompanied by the written consent of the secretary of the relevant affected party to the use of the word by the applicant party in its application name or application abbreviation.

The relevant affected party for the purposes of subsection (6)(b) is —

if there is only 1 affected party — that affected party; or

if there are 2 or more affected parties — the affected party that has continuously had the word in its registered name or registered abbreviation longest.

Subsection (6) does not apply to a word that is —

a function word; or

a collective noun for people; or

the name of a country or a recognised geographical place in Australia; or

the adjectival form of the name of a country or a recognised geographical place in Australia; or

the word “country”; or

the word “State”; or

the word “democratic”.

In applying subsections (6) to (6B) in relation to a word, other grammatical forms, and commonly accepted variants (including abbreviations, contractions and alternative forms), of the word must be treated in the same way as the word.

If the Electoral Commissioner decides to refuse an application, the Electoral Commissioner is to give the applicant written notice of —

the refusal; and

the reasons for the refusal.

[Section 62J inserted: No. 36 of 2000 s. 63; amended: No. 20 of 2021 s. 38; No. 46 of 2024 s. 4.]