politics
Australian Committee Reports Rise in Antisocial Behavior at 2025 Election Polls
An interim report from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters found escalation in antisocial behavior at polling booths during the 2025 federal election, partly driven by third-party groups. The committee issued more than a dozen recommendations, while Coalition members issued a dissenting report accusing the panel of bias.
Audio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Abc reported that the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters released an interim report on the 2025 Australian federal election that documented an escalation in antisocial behavior at polling booths. The report attributed part of the increase to third-party groups and described their impact on voters as almost universally corrosive.
The committee made more than a dozen recommendations, including a new code of conduct requiring all campaigners to register with the Australian Electoral Commission.
It also proposed granting the AEC authority to direct volunteers to leave polling places for repeated or egregious breaches and creating a new campaign zone with fewer campaigners and reduced signage. A final report is scheduled for the end of 2026.
Abc reported that three Coalition members of the committee, Richard Colbeck, James McGrath and Ben Small, issued a dissenting report that accused the Labor-dominated panel of conducting a hyper-partisan witch-hunt of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church based on religious faith.
The dissent cited the committee's threat to summon church members while not summoning Peter Jordan, husband of Kooyong MP Monique Ryan, after he removed a Liberal candidate's election sign. The dissenting report also noted homophobic insults directed at Liberal Party volunteers by the father of committee chair Jerome Laxale at a polling place. Laxale later apologized for those remarks.
Other incidents cited in the interim report included police being called to a dispute involving a volunteer for Wills MP Peter Khalil and a Muslim Votes Matter volunteer, neo-Nazis protesting outside the office of Liberal senator James Paterson, and heckling of Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese at press conferences.
