The electoral system of Australia comprises the laws and processes used for the election of members of the Australian Parliament and is governed primarily by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The system presently has a number of distinctive features including compulsory enrolment; compulsory voting; majority-preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the House of Representatives; and the use of the single transferable vote proportional representation system to elect the upper house, the Senate.
The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into which it merged, it has been refounded in that state as the Family First Party (2021), where it contested the state election in 2022, but failed to win a seat.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF) is a conservative Australian political party. It primarily advocates for increased funding and services for rural and regional Australia, protecting the right to farm, enhancing commercial and recreational fishing, and relaxing gun control for citizens.
The Libertarian Party (LP), formerly known as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is an Australian political party founded in Canberra in 2001. The party espouses smaller government and supports policies that are based on classical liberal, libertarian principles, such as lower taxes, opposing restrictions on civil liberties, decentralisation, uranium mining, and the relaxation of smoking laws.
The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 is an Act of the Australian Parliament which continues to be the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918. The Act was introduced by the Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes, the main purpose of which was to replace first-past-the-post voting with instant-runoff voting for the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Labor Party opposed the introduction of preferential voting. The Act has been amended on several occasions since.
The Non-Custodial Parents Party was a minor political party in Australia registered between 1999 and 2020. It supported less government control of many aspects of daily family life, focusing on reform of family law and child support.
Pirate Party Australia is a political party in Australia that had traditionally represented civil liberty issues, but had also expanded into more traditional areas of policy. It was a Pirate Party which was based on the Pirate Party of Sweden, and continued to develop a comprehensive policy platform since its formation based on the Pirate ethos.
The Sustainable Australia Party (SAP), officially registered as Sustainable Australia Party – Universal Basic Income, is an Australian political party that was formed in 2010.
The Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP) was a far-right political party in Australia. The party's policy platform was focused on nationalist and Christian conservative issues, such as opposing Islamic immigration and religious freedom for Australian Muslims and opposition to same-sex marriage in Australia. The party was launched in 2011 and was led by Pentecostal minister Danny Nalliah until its dissolution in June 2019. Its slogan was "Keep Australia Australian". Nalliah is the president of Catch the Fire Ministries.
The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is an Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party was deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission in 2017, revived and re-registered in 2018, and voluntarily deregistered in 2022. The party fielded candidates in all 150 House of Representatives seats at the 2013 federal election. Palmer, the party's leader, was elected to the Division of Fairfax and it reached a peak of three senators following the rerun of the Western Australian senate election in 2014. When the party was revived under its original name in 2018, it was represented by ex-One Nation senator Brian Burston in the federal parliament.
Bullet Train for Australia, formerly known as Bullet Train for Canberra, was an Australian political party, registered from 2013 to 2017. It was a single-issue party campaigning for a fast implementation of high-speed rail. It advocated that the first stage of the bullet train should run from Melbourne to Newcastle via Canberra and Sydney, and be built within 5 years.
On 5 April 2014, an Australian Senate special election in Western Australia was held. The special election was held six months after the 2013 Australian federal election. The result of that 2013 election for the Australian Senate in Western Australia was voided on 20 February 2014 by the High Court of Australia, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, because 1,375 ballot papers were lost during an official recount in November 2013. The High Court ruled that because the number of lost ballots exceeded the margin for the two remaining Senate seats, the only acceptable remedy was to void the results and hold a special election.
The Minor Party Alliance (MPA) is a collaborative undertaking of small Australian political parties, created by Glenn Druery's "Independent Liaison" business, which assists in organising preference meetings and negotiating preference flows between minor parties in Australia. The aim of the Alliance is the election of Alliance candidates to Australian upper houses based upon the accumulation of their primary votes and the registered "above-the-line" party preferences to reach an electoral quota. For the Australian Senate, the quota for a half-Senate election in each State is normally 14.3%. The MPA effectively aims to "game" the electoral system, an act it believes to be justified, based upon their perception that the Australian electoral system is unfair and heavily biased against minor parties.
The Arts Party is an Australian political party inspired by the importance of the arts and creative action. The party was voluntarily deregistered with the Australian Electoral Commission on 25 June 2019, but remains registered for local elections with the New South Wales Electoral Commission.
CountryMinded was an Australian political party formed in 2014 that claimed to represent the interests of regional Australians whose livelihoods depend either directly or indirectly on agricultural production. The party was founded by a group of people looking for accountable regional representation, including two brothers from New South Wales, David and Peter Mailler as the Country Party of Australia, and changed its name to CountryMinded in September 2015. In 2018, the party merged with the Australian Democrats.
Australian Liberty Alliance (ALA), briefly known as the Yellow Vest Australia (YVA) between 2019 and 2020, was a minor right-wing to far-right political party in Australia. The party was founded by members of the Q Society and has been described as the political wing of Q Society. The leader was Debbie Robinson (President), who was also national president of the Q Society. On 4 September 2020, the Australian Electoral Commission removed the Yellow Vest Australia from the registered political party list.
The Australian Sex Party was an Australian political party founded in 2009 in response to concerns over the purported increasing influence of religion in Australian politics. The party was born out of an adult-industry lobby group, the Eros Association. Its leader, Fiona Patten, was formerly the association's CEO.
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth consecutive term in office but was defeated by the opposition Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese. Up for election were all 151 seats in the lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as 40 of the 76 seats in the upper house, the Senate.
Trumpet of Patriots (ToP) is an Australian political party. It is currently registered to contest elections in New South Wales and the Northern Territory, as well as at federal elections.
Drew Pavlou is an Australian political activist best known for his criticism of the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party, and their influence within Australia. Pavlou is also known for organising protests on-campus in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, and for later protest activity against the Chinese government.
