PARTY RULES? Dilemmas of Political Party Regulation in Australia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PARTY RULES? Dilemmas of political party regulation in Australia PARTY RULES? Dilemmas of political party regulation in Australia Edited by Anika Gauja and Marian Sawer Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Party rules? : dilemmas of political party regulation in Australia / editors: Anika Gauja, Marian Sawer. ISBN: 9781760460761 (paperback) 9781760460778 (ebook) Subjects: Political parties--Australia. Political parties--Law and legislation--Australia. Political participation--Australia. Australia--Politics and government. Other Creators/Contributors: Gauja, Anika, editor. Sawer, Marian, 1946- editor. Dewey Number: 324.2994 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. This edition © 2016 ANU Press Contents Figures . vii Tables . ix Abbreviations . xi Acknowledgements . xiii Contributors . xv 1 . Party rules: Promises and pitfalls . 1 Marian Sawer and Anika Gauja 2 . Resisting legal recognition and regulation: Australian parties as rational actors? . 37 Sarah John 3 . Party registration and political participation: Regulating small and ‘micro’ parties . .73 Norm Kelly 4 . Who gets what, when and how: The politics of resource allocation to parliamentary parties . 101 Yvonne Murphy 5 . Putting the cartel before the house? Public funding of parties in Queensland . 123 Graeme Orr 6 . More regulated, more level? Assessing the impact of spending and donation caps on Australian State elections . 147 Jennifer Rayner 7 . Dilemmas of party regulation: Hands-on courts versus hands‑off legislators? . 173 Anika Gauja 8 . Party rules: The regulatory ‘gap’ . 197 Anika Gauja and Marian Sawer Appendix: Federally registered political parties, 1984–2016 . 215 Figures Figure 3.1 Number of registered parties at federal elections, 1984–2013 ...............................84 Figure 5.1 Growth in public funding rate (Commonwealth elections) ..........................128 Figure 5.2 Queensland Greens’ income from public funding ....132 Figure 6.1 Queensland campaign spending, 2006–12 ..........159 Figure 6.2 Queensland major party donations relative to spending, 2006–12. .161 Figure 6.3 Queensland minor party donations relative to spending, 2006–12 .............................161 Figure 6.4 NSW campaign spending, 2003–11 ...............165 Figure 6.5 NSW major party donations relative to spending, 2003–11 .............................165 Figure 6.6 NSW minor party donations relative to spending, 2003–11. .166 vii Tables Table 1.1 Date of first acknowledgement of political parties in national constitutions: Europe . 4 Table 1.2 Date of initial introduction of party regulation by jurisdiction . .14 Table 1.3 Additional resources allocated for minor parties and Independents in the federal parliament ..............22 Table 2.1 Levels of legal intervention in political parties ........44 Table 3.1 Party groups contesting Senate elections, 1998, 2013 and 2016 ...............................85 Table 3.2 Parties refused registration in 2013: 500-member test ...89 Table 3.3 Party membership requirements for registration .......89 Table 3.4 Candidates contesting Senate elections, 1983–2016 .....94 Table A3.1 Parties registered between the 2010 and 2013 federal elections. 98 Table A3.2 Parties that applied prior to the 2013 election and registered after the 2013 election. 99 Table A3.3 Newly registered parties, 2014–16 ................99 Table 6.1 Australian party finances, 2007, 2010 and 2013 ......152 Table 6.2 Australian State party finances, State elections, 2011–13 . .153 Table 6.3 NSW and Queensland caps introduced in 2010 and 2011 .................................157 Table 6.4 Queensland party funds: Dollars per voter ..........162 ix Party RULES? Table 6.5 Ratios of major and minor party finances: Queensland. .163 Table 6.6 NSW party funds: Dollars per voter ...............166 Table 6.7 Ratios of major and minor party finances: NSW ......167 x Abbreviations ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation ACT Australian Capital Territory ADI Australian Defence Industries AEC Australian Electoral Commission ALP Australian Labor Party AMEP Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party ANAO Australian National Audit Office APA Australian Progressive Alliance APPDP Australian Political Parties for Democracy Program AusAID Australian Agency for International Development CDP Christian Democratic Party CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women COAG Council of Australian Governments DLP Democratic Labor Party FOI freedom of information GVTs group voting tickets HEMP Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party ICAC Independent Commission Against Corruption ICT information and communication technology IDEA Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance IDU International Democratic Union IFES International Foundation for Electoral Systems JLN Jacqui Lambie Network JSCEM Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters xi Party RULES? JSCER Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform LC Legislative Council LDP Liberal Democratic Party LFF Liberals for Forests LNP Liberal National Party MP Member of Parliament NAA National Archives of Australia NLA National Library of Australia NSW New South Wales NT Northern Territory NXT Nick Xenophon Team OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OPV optional preferential voting OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe PAA Parliamentary Activities Allowance POP partial optional preferential PUP Palmer United Party SA South Australia SASP Save the ADI Site Party SBS Special Broadcasting Service STV single transferable vote TAA Travel and Accommodation Allowance UK United Kingdom UN United Nations US United States xii Acknowledgements This book arose from a workshop entitled ‘The Legal Regulation of Political Parties in Australia’ held at the University of Sydney in June 2014. We are grateful to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for funding this workshop and to all those who contributed to the discussion and presented stimulating papers. In addition to the authors in this volume, the paper-givers included Brian Costar, Stewart Jackson, Ron Levy, Narelle Miragliotta, Zim Nwokora and Nicholas Reece. One feature of the workshop was a roundtable on party law in practice, cosponsored by the Electoral Regulation Research Network. The roundtable had the following participants: Colin Barry (former NSW Electoral Commissioner), Gareth Ward MLA (Chair, Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, NSW Parliament), Luke Foley (then Leader of the Opposition in the NSW Legislative Council) and Geoff Ash (Registered Officer, Greens NSW). The book has benefited significantly from the attention of the Social Sciences Editorial Board of the ANU Press and the excellent reviewer reports it commissioned. It has also benefited from numerous helpful suggestions by Graeme Orr and from the work of Emily Tinker at ANU Press. xiii Contributors Anika Gauja Anika Gauja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney. Her research focuses on party regulation, reform and partisan engagement. She is the author of Political Parties and Elections (2010), The Politics of Party Policy (2013) and Party Reform (2017). Sarah John Sarah John is the Research Director at FairVote, a non-partisan non- profit organisation based in Washington, DC, that researches the impact of electoral systems in the United States. She received her PhD and LL.B at Flinders University and has published on electoral reform and electoral systems. Norm Kelly Norm Kelly is author of Directions in Australian Electoral Reform (2012) and has published articles and book chapters on electoral law. He has worked in the international democracy development field for the past decade, including in party development, candidate training, election observing, research and writing, working throughout Melanesia, Australia and Afghanistan. Previously, Norm was a Member of Parliament in Western Australia. He is now based in Wellington, New Zealand. Yvonne Murphy Yvonne Murphy is a PhD candidate and part-time lecturer in the Department of Government at University College Cork. Her research interests lie in parliamentary and electoral politics, with particular emphasis on institutional design and influences on the decision-making of politicians. Prior to her career in academic xv Party RULES? research, Yvonne worked as a political advisor and researcher in the Irish Parliament. She is currently co-editor of the Irish Political Studies: Data Yearbook. Graeme Orr Graeme Orr is Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, specialising in the law of politics and, until recently, was the international editor of the Election Law Journal. His books include The Law of Politics: Elections, Parties and Money in Australia (2010), Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems (2015) and The Law of Deliberative Democracy (with Ron Levy, 2016). Jennifer Rayner Jennifer Rayner received her PhD in Political Science from The Australian National University in 2015. She is the author of Generation Less: How Australia is Cheating the Young (2016) and currently serves as an adviser to the