Brazen lies, ballot box bullies among election antics
Misinformation promoted by right-wing trolls during the Australian election is raising concerns about integrity.
Election analyst Kevin Bonham said prominent accounts with large followings “consistently and shamelessly post nonsense about preferential voting.”
“These are generally not bots, but particularly right-wing accounts outside the Liberal Party mainstream, Sky News-focused types, some of the supporters of minor right-wing parties,” he told an investigation into the 2025 federal election.
More brazenly, Greens deputy caucus Jonathan Parry blamed misinformation on a lack of results in the absence of truth-in-political advertising laws.
Mr Parry called for the removal of large sums of money from politics and the lifting of donation bans on sectors that seek political influence, such as gambling, fossil fuels, banking, pharmaceuticals, defence, alcohol and property development.
“The perception of trading money for favors or favoritism is really ripe and this needs to be cut at every possible opportunity,” he said.
The Greens caucus leader spoke of intimidation tactics at the polls in May’s federal election when a volunteer from another party came and stood next to him.
Independent MP Helen Haines also expressed concern about violence, saying a stand would require a police presence.
“It was dangerous and our volunteers didn’t want to go back to the voting booth because they felt threatened,” he said.
Independent peer Nicolette Boele, who won the Sydney seat of Bradfield from the Liberals, said she had to hire private security.
The inquiry is also examining whether the federal parliament should be expanded as Australia’s population grows and MPs are responsible for more voters.
Independent ACT senator David Pocock said the number of Senate seats for the regions should be closer to half the number of seats held by the states.
That would give districts about six seats, with half increasing with each election, for six-year terms, similar to states.
Dr Bonham said if the regions got four seats, which is what Labor has promised, they should all stand for election at the same time and not be mixed like the states.
“They’re still voting in these two-seat poor elections,” he said.
Dr Bonham pointed out that the number of senators per state could range from 12 to 14 or 16; This would require dozens of new House seats due to the ratios required by the constitution between the upper and lower houses.
Ben Raue, an election analyst who runs the website The Tally Room, told the inquiry that more MPs would be better for community engagement.
This will also expand the talent pool, he said.
“There is a limited relationship between an individual’s ability and whether they are elected,” he said, pointing to poorly performing parties or pre-selected candidates in narrow seats.
Senator Pocock said the priority should be to better resource MPs; as cross-candidates have called for staff allocations to now be depoliticized at the behest of the prime minister.
The inquiry was told that the three-year cycle was an international anomaly and cost the economy due to uncertainty.
Marty Gray, founder of 4-Year Period Australia, said that the public and private sectors paused major investments and decisions until after the election, which prevented economic growth.
He calculated that a change to four-year fixed terms could yield $60 billion in productivity benefits over twenty years.
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