Download this submission:
Submission to the Inquiry into and report on all aspects of the conduct of the 2019 Federal Election and matters related thereto (PDF, 160 KB, 23 September 2019)

A parliamentary committee reviews the conduct of each federal election, and the Science Party has a history of making a submission to each of these reviews since 2013. Our submissions have a theme of opposing barriers to entry into politics for newer players, because we know the major parties don't represent all Australians! Diversity of ideas in parliament is good for democracy.

Our 2019 submission contained two major points:

1) The doubling of the nomination deposit for lower house candidates (which funnels money from smaller parties to larger parties); and

2) The new "Section 44 Checklist".

Before the election, Andrea Leong posted a video on the nomination deposit increase, and two videos on Section 44, before and after the new checklists for candidates were published. If you like these videos, please give them a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

YouTube video: 'Priced out of democracy'

In our submission we also argued for:

• more accountability for printed electoral materials, through clearer authorisation messages;
• real-time reporting of political donations;
• no anonymous donations over $1,000;
• a trial of hybrid electronic voting; and
• an early voting window of no more than two weeks, to give candidates and the Australian Electoral Commission some breathing space once the nominations are finalised.