Introduction

The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May, with a pre-polling period commencing Monday 9 May. The election was notable for several reasons: the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) took its strongest action against misinformation to date; public health orders required some candidates and voters to isolate during the campaign; and a substantial increase in the size of the electoral roll led to the lowest turnout of enrolled voters in 100 years.

The ALP won 77 seats in the House of Representatives, allowing it to form a majority government led by Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, NSW). The Coalition parties (Liberal Party, LNP, and the Nationals) were reduced to 58 seats. Independent candidates had their most successful election to date, winning 10 seats. In the Senate, the ALP and the Coalition each won 15 seats, with 10 of the 40 incoming Senators either independents or belonging to crossbench parties. The combined primary vote share of Labor and Coalition fell to its lowest number (68%) since the Liberal Party’s creation in 1944.

This paper first discusses the background to the 2022 election, the events of the campaign, and the AEC’s administration of the election. It then provides an overview of results in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It concludes with data on parties’ and candidates’ declared donations and expenditure leading up to the election, and details of disputes arising from the result.

Electoral context

The 2022 election marked the end of nine years of Coalition government in Australia. While this was a relatively long period of government by one party, three different Prime Ministers held office between 2013 and 2022. The three years of the 46th Parliament (from 2019 to 2022) were uncommonly stable in recent Australian political history: not since 2004 to 2007 had a Prime Minister served a full parliamentary term of Parliament without being replaced by his or her colleagues. Mr Albanese had likewise been Opposition leader for almost the full term of the parliament.

COVID-19 pandemic

The 46th Parliament was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic that brought much of the world to a standstill in early 2020. By May 2022, Australia had experienced 6,807,726 registered cases of COVID-19, including 7,976 deaths.

Australia reported its first confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 25 January 2020, prompting implementation of the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on 18 February. This plan, based on the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework, sought to provide guidelines for proportionate policy responses and clarify federal and state-territory responsibilities. To help co-ordinate the intergovernmental arrangements, Prime Minister Scott Morrison MP (Cook, NSW) announced the formation of a National Cabinet on 13 March 2020. National Cabinet initially made collective decisions regarding the pandemic, with implementation left for the discretion of the states and territories, but in May 2020 expanded its remit and replaced the Council of Australian Governments as the country’s primary forum for state and federal collaboration.

The Victorian Government declared a State of Emergency on 16 March 2020, activating expanded police and public health powers. The Australian Government followed on 18 March, declaring a human biosecurity emergency that empowered it to regulate or restrict the movement of persons, goods, or transport, enforce evacuations, and close premises. Related measures required the Parliament to operate in a semi-remote capacity, with Members and Senators able to participate in debates (though not to initiate business or to vote in divisions) from their electorates.

The Tasmanian Government was the first to close its domestic border on 19 March 2020, with other states and territories following soon after. Interstate (and some intra-state) travel was restricted to varying degrees until March 2022, when Western Australia opened its borders to quarantine-free passage. On 20 March 2020, the Australian Government announced an international travel ban for all non-residents and non-citizens. National borders were gradually reopened from October 2021, starting with immediate family members of residents, international students in December 2021, and fully vaccinated travellers in February 2022 (delayed until March 2022 in Western Australia).

Despite the economic and social disruptions between 2020 and 2022, national economic conditions rebounded to almost pre-pandemic levels before the 2022 election. The economic recovery was supported by three stimulus packages announced in March 2020:

• $130 billion in $1500/fortnight wage subsidies (‘JobKeeper’) paid to eligible businesses and employees.
• $66.1 billion to temporarily double the rate of JobSeeker, another one-off payment to pensioners and eligible households, release superannuation funds before retirement, and reduce social security deeming rates
• $17.6 billion in tax relief and cashflow assistance to businesses, one-off payments to pensioners and other eligible households, and regional and tourism-based support

The unemployment rate reached as high as 7.4% in June and July 2020, before falling to 3.9% at the time of the 2022 election. The Reserve Bank’s cash rate fell to 0.10% in November 2020, where it remained until it was raised to 0.35% on 3 May 2022, 18 days before the federal election.

Parliament House sexual misconduct allegations

On 15 February 2021, former Morrison Government staffer Brittany Higgins publicly alleged that in 2019 she had been sexually assaulted inside Parliament House by a colleague, later named as Bruce Lehrmann. The allegations received media and public attention throughout the parliamentary term (and beyond), both on specific sexual misconduct claims and parliamentary workplace culture more generally. On 5 March 2021, the Government announced the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces (commonly called the Jenkins Review), to be conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission. ‘March 4 Justice’ protests took place in every capital city on 15 March 2021, including Canberra where Ms Higgins spoke to a large crowd. On 23 March 2021, Mr Morrison gave an extensive press conference covering a range of allegations of misbehaviour inside Parliament as well as by parliamentarians. The Jenkins Review was tabled in Parliament on 30 November 2021, and the Government responded on 8 February 2022 by apologising to Ms Higgins and other staffers who had been bullied or harassed at work. Media focus on the issue remained consistent up to (and after) the 2022 election.

Electoral redistributions

The electoral redistribution process during the 46th Parliament was relatively controversial, with the AEC’s post-election determination recommending that the Northern Territory’s (NT) House of Representatives seats be reduced from two to one. Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (NT) introduced a private Senator’s bill to prevent the redistribution and amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to ensure that the NT has a minimum of two House of Representatives seats. Following recommendations from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, in 2020 the Government legislated to change electorate apportionment in the two territories, such that they will keep a minimum of two seats each in future. The AEC determined that Western Australia would lose one division (Stirling, held by the LP) and Victoria gain one (Hawke, predicted to be won by the ALP). Notionally, the ALP went into the 2022 election with 69 seats and the Coalition with 76.

Election timeline

The Prime Minister chose the latest possible date (21 May 2022) available under the Constitution for a joint Senate and House election. On 11 April the Parliament was prorogued, House of Representatives dissolved, and election writs issued. Key election dates were as follows:

Campaign events and coverage

Pre-election polling

Following the ‘polling failure’ of the 2019 federal election, both media and polling companies were noticeably more circumspect in reporting on polling before the 2022 election. Established polling companies cooperated to form the Australian Polling Council in 2020, which created a code of conduct for pollsters and provided useful advice for media outlets covering polls in 2022.

One company, YouGov, trialled a technique called Multilevel Regression analysis with Poststratification (MRP) that has been popular at recent British and American elections. MRP calibrates standard opinion polling data with Census data at the electoral division level to provide estimates of how voters in different electorates are likely to vote (based on the educational, ethnic, age, etc profiles of voters in an electorate), rather than assuming any electoral swing will be uniform across all 151 divisions. The YouGov MRP was published in News Corp newspapers on 12 May 2022, and predicted that independent candidates could win as many as 7 seats. While this figure underestimated the size of the crossbench elected 9 days later, it was the first poll to specifically predict the success of Climate 200-backed candidates.

Traditional opinion polling was generally accurate on national primary and two-party preferred (TPP) vote shares. Of the five major polling companies in the field in 2022, four produced a final pre-election estimate within 1% of the final national TPP figure. In all, the ALP led in traditional opinion polls from the start of the campaign to election day (Figure 1).

Leaders’ debates

Three leaders’ debates were held during the campaign period:

• Wednesday 20 April 2022 in Brisbane, broadcast on Sky News Australia to an estimated audience of 400,000 viewers
• Sunday 8 May 2022 in Sydney, broadcast on the Nine Network to 950,000 viewers
• Wednesday 11 May 2022 in Sydney, broadcast on the Seven Network to 811,000 viewers.

These audience figures are similar to the three debates held during the 2019 election campaign, and continue the upward swing in viewership after a low in 2016. The Treasurer and Shadow Treasurer held a debate at the National Press Club on 4 May 2022, broadcast on ABC television and radio.

Interruptions to the campaign

The campaign period – 11 April to 21 May 2022 – contained two major public holidays (Easter and Anzac Day) that interrupted public campaigning. The Easter holiday (15 to 18 April) fell on the first weekend of the campaign and, as in 2019, the major party leaders agreed to ‘limit’ campaign activities during that time (and particularly on Good Friday and Easter Sunday). Crossbench and minor party candidates (including minor party leaders) continued to campaign, however, while Mr Morrison and Mr Albanese made public appearances throughout the long weekend. Likewise, while the major parties paused campaign advertising for Anzac Day on Monday 25 April, representatives from both parties appeared at public events. Mr Morrison and the ALP defence spokesman Richard Marles MP (Corio, Vic) both spoke at a memorial service in Darwin. Mr Albanese tested positive for COVID-19 on 21 April, restricting him from campaigning in person for seven days (including over Anzac Day, hence Mr Marles’ appearance in Darwin).

Figure 1: Pooled polls of Liberal Party vote intention, TPP, 2019 to 2022

Source: Professor Simon Jackman, University of Sydney

Candidates: numbers and issues

A total of 1,624 candidates nominated for the 2022 federal election: 1203 in House of Representatives contests, and 421 in the Senate. Across all nominations, 40% of candidates were men, and 60% were women. Three candidates self-described as non-binary. Of the major parties contesting the election, the Greens had the highest proportion of female candidates (53%), the ALP had 47%, the Liberal Party 36%, the Nationals 27%, and LNP 21%. Across all independent candidates, 42% were women.

Fewer candidates withdrew their nominations or were disendorsed by their parties than in recent Australian elections. One Liberal candidate (Christopher Ride in Macnamara, Vic, citing personal reasons) and one ALP candidate (Peter Tsambalas in Hughes, NSW, due to concerns about citizenship-related eligibility) withdrew, both early enough that their parties could nominate replacements. Although some members of the Liberal Party – including incumbent Member for North Sydney (NSW) Trent Zimmerman – called on the party to disendorse Katherine Deves as its candidate for Warringah, she retained her party endorsement. The Animal Justice Party disendorsed two candidates after the close of nominations.

The Liberal Party’s review of the campaign highlighted delays in selecting candidates (notably in NSW) as a factor contributing to their election loss. The review specifically stated that ‘The experience of the Party in recent elections where a number of Divisions did not conduct some key pre-selections in a politically timely way cannot continue in the future if the Party is to present strong candidates with a prospect of winning seats.’ The party did not endorse candidates in some NSW seats until April 2022. Similarly, the ALP did not select candidates for the seats of Holt and Parramatta until March 2022.

Electoral administration

Administration of the 2022 election was marked by particular challenges: managing increasing rates of early voting, and providing contingencies for voters required to isolate while unwell with COVID-19. Following the 2019 election, when the pre-poll period was 19 days, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters recommended that the window be reduced to a maximum of 14 days. The Morrison Government responded by legislating that pre-polling must start no earlier than 12 days before election day. Despite having nine fewer days to cast an early ballot, a full 50% of all votes were cast at pre-polling centres, up from 32% in 2019 (see ).

To ensure that Australians who tested positive to COVID-19 and in mandatory isolation on 21 May 2022 could still vote, the AEC scaled up its telephone voting service. The AEC typically maintains a small telephone voting program for vision-impaired voters and those living in Antarctica on election day, which usually services around 2000 voters. Legislation passed on 16 February 2022 extended the right to vote by telephone to anyone in isolation on election day (anyone isolating in the pre-poll period was instead urged to vote by mail). After a condensed planning and implementation process that prepared for as many as 360,000 possible telephone votes, the AEC facilitated 75,366 telephone votes from COVID-19 positive voters, 2,747 from vision-impaired voters and 65 from residents of Antarctica. Phone voting (not shown in Figure 2) constituted 0.5% of all votes cast in 2022.

The other piece of the AEC’s pandemic election toolkit was postal voting. The AEC took two unusual steps in the lead up to this election. First, it actively encouraged postal voting, particularly among voters who had either tested or expected to test positive to COVID-19 in the campaign period. This change in approach was enabled by the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Contingency Measures) Act 2021. Second, likely anticipating the eventual record numbers of postal votes received at this election, the AEC warned candidates and parties to cease the ‘legal but… potentially misleading” practice of involving themselves in the postal vote application and submission process. In all, the AEC sent out 2,731,088 postal vote applications in 2022, and processed 1,792,298 returned votes postal votes – an 80 per cent increase from 2019. The AEC expects the growth in postal voting to continue (although likely not at this pace).

Figure 2 Vote type in recent elections, 1993 to 2022

Source: Antony Green, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

AEC misinformation campaign

The AEC’s Service Charter includes ‘providing information and education on electoral matters’. In 2022, the AEC took a more proactive role in correcting misinformation about the electoral process, incorporating. This role had two major elements. The first of these was an unprecedented degree of engagement on social media, correcting misinformation about the voting process in real time. The AEC reported that it was concerned about increasing rates since 2019 of misinformation about Australia’s electoral system – including the counting process, use of electronic voting machines, destruction of ballot papers, and compulsory voting – since the 2019 election. The Commission formed an agreement with Meta, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and TikTok committing to promote electoral integrity, and requested that the companies remove identified information off their platforms during and after the campaign. The more visible aspect, however, was deployment of official AEC accounts on social media (primarily on Twitter). This social media engagement took an unusual tone for the AEC—“clear but chatty, direct but upbeat”—and was generally well-received. As in previous years, the AEC also continued its register of apparent disinformation, allowing its staff to respond to key themes emerging online.

The second, related aspect of this role comprised the AEC’s ‘Stop and Consider’ campaign. Initiated in 2019 but expanded in 2022, the campaign encouraged voters to think carefully about the sources of election information that they consumed during the election period.

Voter enrolment and turnout

More voters were enrolled and more votes were cast at the 2022 election than at any previous Australian election, although the turnout rate (as a percentage of enrolled voters) was the lowest since compulsory voting was introduced in 1924 (Figure 3).

The electoral roll saw a net increase of 804,652 between the 2019 and 2022 federal elections (Table 1). This growth is in line with an increase in the estimated number of eligible voters nationally: the estimated enrolment rate remaining effectively the same (97.0% compared with 96.8%). Voter turnout as a proportion of the estimated eligible population (i.e. Australian citizens aged 18 and over, either in the country or abroad) was 87% in 2022. This estimate of turnout has fluctuated between 2010 and 2022, without any real trend. While it remains lower than turnout rate among enrolled voters (and always will, so long as there remain some potential voters who do not enrol), the gap between the estimated eligible population rate and enrolled rate of turnout is narrowing.

Enrolment rates remain constant between states and territories, except for the NT (Table 2). Enrolment among NT voters grew from 83.9% of the estimated eligible population to 85.6%. This is probably at least partially attributable to the AEC’s recent Indigenous enrolment initiatives; the estimated Indigenous enrolment rate in the NT increased from 68% in 2019 to 74% in 2022. The two NT electoral divisions saw the lowest rates of enrolled turnout in the country, with the seat of Durack in Western Australia a close third (Table 3).

Figure 3 Voter turnout among enrolled population, 1901 to 2022

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 1 AEC estimates of eligible voting population and turnout, 2010 to 2022

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 2 AEC estimates of eligible voting population and turnout by state and territory, 2022 federal election

Estimated Eligible Population is calculated using ABS citizen population figures for 30 June 2020 (revised) and 30 June 2021 (preliminary) based on the 2016 Census. ABS data is adjusted by the AEC and projected forward to the relevant date, then adjusted for British Subjects, those of unsound mind, overseas electors and new citizens since the Census.
Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 3 Divisions with the lowest turnout among enrolled voters, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Voters can also abstain by completing their ballot incorrectly, either by design or accidentally. The eight electoral divisions with the highest rates of informal ballots were all in NSW, and predominantly in the outer western suburbs (Table 4). These divisions also have comparatively high rates of residents born overseas and speaking languages other than English at home. Given the complexity of the Australia’s electoral system, high rates of informality here is not surprising. Further, these divisions have also reported high rates of informality at previous federal elections.

Table 4 Divisions with the highest rates of informal votes cast, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Election results

House of Representatives results

The 2022 federal election returned 77 House of Representatives members belonging to the ALP, 27 from the Liberal Party, 21 from the LNP, 10 from the Nationals, 10 independents, 4 from the Greens and one each from Centre Alliance and KAP. In total, the Coalition parties won 58 seats (Figure 4).

These results constitute an increase in 8 ALP members, 7 independents, and 3 Greens, and a decrease in 19 Liberal members and 2 LNP members from the 2019 election. During the 46th parliament (between 2019 and 2022) two members of the Coalition MPs (George Christensen and Craig Kelly) resigned to sit as independents. The Coalition therefore lost 17 seats from

Figure 4 Party representation in the House of Representatives, 1984 to 2022

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 5 Divisional results in the House of Representatives, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

the final pre-election composition of the parliament. Their 58 seats comprised their smallest parliamentary party since 1983, while the combined ALP-Coalition total of 135 out of 151 seats (89% of the parliament) is the lowest since 1934.

In total, 20 seats changed hands at the election (Table 6). Ten of these shifted from the Liberal Party to the ALP, and 6 from the Liberal Party to independents. Two seats in Queensland moved from the LNP to the Greens, while the ALP lost one seat to the Greens and one to an independent. The Greens’ victories in metropolitan Queensland underpinned the party’s most successful election to date. Overall, seats changed hands in NSW (7), WA (5), Victoria (4), Queensland (3) and South Australia (1).

Table 6 Divisions changings hands, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Nationally, the ALP received 32.6% of all first-preference (primary) votes cast (Table 7). The Coalition (Liberal, LNP, and Nationals) combined received 35.7%, the Greens 12.2%, One Nation 5%, UAP 4.1%, and others (including independent candidates) 10.4%. The combined
ALP-Coalition vote share (68.3%) is the lowest major party vote share since 1910. Both the ALP and the Coalition experienced a swing away from their 2019 primary vote shares
(Table 7). Non-major parties (the Greens, One Nation, UAP, as well as smaller parties) received swings towards them at the national level, as did the collective pool of independent candidates across the country.

Table 7 National primary vote share (top ten parties), 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

The 2022 election produced 27 non-traditional contests (Table 8), up from 15 in 2019. These seats range from a (two-candidate preferred) electoral margin of 1.26% (Curtin, WA) to 20.82% (Clark, Tas). Almost half of these (13 seats) are considered marginal, under the threshold of 5%. Either the Coalition or the ALP were represented in the final two candidates contesting the seat.

The number of divisions decided on first preferences also declined dramatically in 2022. In only 15 contests (10% of all divisions) did one candidate receive more than 50% of the primary vote. While the number of contests that require preference distribution for one candidate to achieve 50% of the vote has been increasing in recent decades, the rate of decline between 2019 and 2022 was unusual. One seat – Brisbane – was eventually won by the candidate coming third in the primary vote count; this had previously occurred only 7 times in Australian elections and not since 2010 (in Clark, Tas). In 16 divisions decided on preferences, the eventual winner was placed second on primary votes (up from 12 in 2019). First-round wins in 2022 were shared evenly between the major parties: 7 were won by Coalition candidates and 8 by ALP candidates (Table 9). No non-major party candidate was elected on primary votes only. In the safest non-traditional seat (Clark, Tas) Andrew Wilkie MP (Independent) received 45.5% of the primary vote.

Figure 5 Percentage of House of Representatives divisions decided on primary vote, 2004 to 2022

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 8 Non-traditional contests, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 9 Divisions decided on primary vote by party, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

In recent decades, ‘convenience voting’ (i.e. postal votes, pre-poll votes, declaration votes, and other non-election day voting) has favoured the Coalition parties. As pre-poll voting has become normalised, the differences between votes cast by different channels have decreased (Table 10). In 2022, Coalition candidates received 60% (estimated TPP) of all votes cast at hospital-based polling booths, while mobile booths, remote booths, phone voting, and provisional votes (where a voter’s address cannot be validated at the polling booth) all split heavily towards the ALP. Pre-poll votes, whether cast in a voter’s home division or elsewhere, very narrowly favoured the ALP. Given the national estimated TPP vote was 52.1% to the ALP, the estimates in Table 10 suggest that pre-poll voters were slightly more likely to vote Coalition over the broader population of voters. Postal votes were shared almost evenly between the two major parties; in 2019; 58% of postal votes went to the Coalition.

Table 10 Estimated TPP national vote share by party and vote type, 2022 federal election

Source: Ben Raue, tallyroom.com.au

Senate results

As in the House of Representatives, the 2022 election returned an unusually large Senate crossbench. Of the 40 Senators elected (or re-elected), 15 belonged to the Coalition, 15 to the ALP, 6 to the Greens, and one each to One Nation, Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) and the UAP (Table 11). One candidate, David Pocock, was elected in the ACT under a party designation (to appear ‘above the line’ on the Senate ballot) but sits as an independent in the Senate. He is the first non-major party (and first independent) Senator to represent the ACT.

New South Wales and South Australia both returned three Coalition, two ALP and one Greens Senator (Table 11).[1] The UAP’s Ralph Babet was elected in sixth place in Victoria, leaving the Coalition with two Senators. Likewise, Pauline Hanson was re-elected in Queensland above a third Coalition Senator. Western Australia elected three ALP Senators (their best result since 1984), two Coalition and one Greens Senator, reversing the pre-election composition of three Coalition Senators, two ALP and one Greens. In Tasmania, the Coalition lost one seat to the JLN, and in the Northern Territory voters returned one Coalition and one ALP Senator.

Table 11 Senate seats won, by party and state/territory, 2022 federal election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Every state and territory saw a net swing away from the major parties in terms of vote share, while the Greens’ vote share improved everywhere except the ACT (Tables 12 and 13). There, David Pocock’s 21.8% primary vote appears to have drawn almost equally from previous Coalition, ALP, and Greens voters. In WA, the ALP received a 6.9% swing towards them, but the Liberal ticket (the Nationals did not stand either in Coalition nor separately) suffered a 9.2% swing against them. This resulted in the sixth quota being won by the ALP’s Fatima Payman. In Victoria, a 3.6% swing against the Coalition led to the election of Ralph Babet (UAP) in sixth place.

Table 12 Primary vote share, 2022 Senate election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

Table 13 Swing from 2019 results, 2022 Senate election

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

While the swing away from the major parties increased the size of the Senate crossbench, the extent of the increase is quite small (Figure 6). In 2013, the last election with group-ticket voting, 11 of the 40 incoming senators belonged to the Greens or other minor parties. In 2016, the effects of introducing above-the-line preferencing (and mitigating ‘preference harvesting’) were washed out by the double dissolution election (including a full Senate election) which lowered the quota in each state to less than 8% after preferences. In 2019, without either group-ticket voting or a full Senate election, the crossbench still comprised 8 of the 40 Senators elected. In 2020, the new crossbench made up 10 of the 40 elected.

Figure 6 Incoming Senators at each election since group-ticket voting introduced[2]

Note: labels inside bars show actual numbers; y-axis represents percentage of incoming Senators

Source: Parliamentary Library based on AEC election results data

The proportion of voters preferencing candidates above-the-line (i.e. as a closed party list) remained steady in 2022 (Table 14). Only 6% chose to number every individual candidate, disrupting the order in which parties nominated their candidates. A very large majority (91%) followed the AEC’s recommendation to rank 6 groups above the line (if not voting below the line). A further 7% ranked more than 7 groups, while 6% ranked fewer than the required 6 groups. As at the two previous elections, returning officers were allowed to include these ‘under-ranked’ ballot papers if they expressed a preference for at least one group or candidate (i.e. ‘savings provisions’ intended to enfranchise as many voters as possible).

Table 14 ‘Above the line’ and ‘below the line’ votes in the Senate, 2022 federal election

Source: Antony Green, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Campaign funding and expenditure

Party and candidate donations and electoral expenditure

The funding and disclosure regime at the 2022 Australian election required parties and independent candidates to declare slightly different information across different disclosure periods. Independent House of Representatives candidates and Senate groups were required to disclose their election-based receipts and expenditure. The disclosure period for independent candidates commenced six months before the individual publicly announced their candidacy. Parties’ disclosures are made annually, and so their election-based receipts and expenditure is largely captured in their 2021–22 financial return. However, receipts and expenditure occur across the whole three-year electoral cycle and so the analysis below includes parties’ returns from July 2019 to June 2022. Additionally, parties’ disclosures are aggregated across all endorsed candidates and electoral divisions (including the Senate).

Both parties and independent candidates are required to disclose donations, membership incomes, and in-kind gifts above an indexed threshold; the threshold was $14,000 in July 2019 and $14,500 in June 2022. Parties must disclose all payments made in the relevant financial year, including electoral expenditure, but also staff salaries, administrative expenses, asset purchases and loan repayments, while independent candidates must disclose electoral expenditure.

The combined Coalition parties (Liberals, Nationals and Queensland-based LNP) reported the highest total receipts in the 2019–2022 electoral cycle, with $270,350,610 (see Table 15). The ALP reported $246,579,350, while the UAP had the third highest reportable receipts with $131,477,062.

Similarly, the Coalition parties reported the highest payments over this period: $262,009,098 compared to the ALP’s $216,568,269. The UAP reported $131,477,062 over the same period. Additionally, the Coalition parties reported $59,388,265 in debts in 2021–22 (not shown in Table 15 but available at the AEC’s Transparency Register), the ALP $13,438,631 and UAP $10,094,622.

Table 15 Political party annual returns, 2019-2022 electoral cycle (top 20 by declared payments)

Source: AEC Transparency Register

The successful candidate for Wentworth, NSW, Allegra Spender, reported both the highest receipts and highest expenditure among independents in 2022 (Table 16).[3] Monque Ryan

Table 16 Highest declared receipts and electoral expenditure by independent candidates, 2022 federal election

Source: AEC Transparency Register

(Kooyong, Vic) reported the highest number of individual donors with 3762, well above Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Vic) with 1,999. Rob Priestly (Nicholls, NSW) reported the highest expenditure among unsuccessful candidateswith $702,286, although Carolyn Heise (Cowper, NSW) reported higher total receipts ($994,407).

Third party electoral expenditure

Parties and independent candidates both benefit from third party campaigns, but the 2022 election was notable for the prominence of organisations created to support independent challengers (particularly in Liberal-held electoral divisions). Climate 200 was the largest of these ‘significant third parties’ (Table 17), and in the 2019–2022 electoral cycle it reported $12,994,833 in electoral expenditure supporting its preferred candidate across the country. Electorate-specific third parties spent much smaller amounts: ‘Vote Angus Out’ spent $100,591 supporting Penny Ackery’s campaign in Hume, NSW, and ‘Voices of Bradfield’ spent $59,178 supporting Nicollete Boele against the incumbent Paul Fletcher.

Additionally, many parties and candidates enjoy support from ‘associated entities’, which can include fundraising and/or investment bodies operating alongside regular campaign operations. As associated entities are not required to report electoral expenditure separate from general operating costs, they are not included in Table 17. In 2022, 280 associated entities were affiliated with the ALP, 170 with the Liberal Party, 18 with the Nationals, 3 with the Greens, and 24 with various independent candidates. Generally, associated entities transfer funds to their affiliated parties or candidates rather than producing their own campaign material.

Advertising expenditure

Nielsen Ad Intel estimated that UAP spent $31,346,694, the ALP spent $13,081,037, Liberals spent $10,544,211, and the Greens $915,910 on metropolitan television, print, radio and digital advertising during the 2022 campaign. The Queensland University of Technology identified Kooyong, Wentworth, North Sydney, Mackellar and Hume as the seats with the highest expenditure on social media advertising specifically. In Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg spent $193,000 on Facebook and Instagram advertising while independent candidate Monique Ryan spent $132,000. Senate candidate and UAP leader Clive Palmer spent $170,000 on advertisements on Facebook and Instagram in Queensland. Nationally, the Australia Institute reported that between 21 March 2022 and 20 May 2022, the ALP spent $5 million on Facebook and Instagram ads and the Liberal Party spent $3 million.

Public funding

Public funding was provided to parties receiving more than 4% of votes cast across all divisions in which they nominated candidates. Similarly, independent candidates who received more than 4% of the vote in their electoral division also received public funding. Once that 4% threshold is reached, parties and candidates received $10,656, and $2.914 per vote gained. Endorsed candidates’ funding is paid to their party, while independent candidates directly receive their funding allocations. The per-vote rate of funding is only payable once the AEC receives a party or candidate’s electoral expenditure disclose.

Following the 2022 election, the Coalition parties received combined funding of $29,133,278, slightly higher than the ALP’s $27,104,944. Pooled across their state branches, the Greens received $9,590,088. In total, $73,984,748 was paid to political parties in 2022.

Among independent candidates, Zali Steggall (Warringah, NSW) received the highest payment with $121,898. Despite having the largest electoral margin of any independent MP, Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Tas) only received the 8th highest public funding payment due to the relatively low number of electors in his division. Carolyn Heise (Cowper, NSW) received the highest payment among non-successful candidates, with $85,106 in total—more than successful candidates Dai Le (Fowler, NSW) and Kylea Tink (North Sydney, NSW). Combined, independent candidates were paid $1,892,196.

Table 17 Declared electoral expenditure ($) by Significant Third Parties

Source: AEC Transparency Register

Disputes and investigations

The 2022 election results produced no major appeals or disputes. The AEC received 826 notifications of potential breaches of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, mostly regarding insufficient authorisation of electoral matter. Of those complaints, 180 were found to be in breach of the Act.

The AEC sent warning notices to respondents in the 180 confirmed breaches. Almost all were rectified during the campaign period with no further action taken. Two cases – against UAP candidate Craig Kelly (Hughes, NSW) and the Liberal Party’s state director in Victoria – involved civil proceedings in the Federal Court.

The AEC declared 37 designated electors (i.e. voters suspected to have cast multiple votes) in 2022; this was far lower than the 1287 declared in 2019. Designated electors may only cast declaration votes at subsequent elections.

Under subsection 245(15) of the Electoral Act, 226 people were convicted and fined for their failure to vote (and non-compliance with penalties for not voting). No other criminal investigations arose from the election.

Acknowledgements

Figure 1 was first published by Professor Simon Jackman at his opinion poll averaging repository, https://simonjackman.github.io/poll_averaging_aus_2022/index.html.

Figure 2 and Table 14 were first published by Antony Green on his personal election blog, https://antonygreen.com.au.

Table 10 comprises unpublished data collected and generously shared by Ben Raue, The Tally Room.

Claire Fox (Department of Parliamentary Services) contributed research on advertising expenditure, candidates, and electoral administration.

[1].   South Australia is the only state in which the Liberal Party and Nationals nominated separate Senate tickets.

[2].   In this chart, ‘crossbench’ Senators represent the Greens, Democrats, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, UAP, David Pocock, JLN, Liberal Democrats, Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, Family First, Centre Alliance, Australian Sports Party, Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, Democratic Labor Party, Independent, Nuclear Disarmament, and Liberal Movement.

[3].   Independent candidates competing for the Senate are not shown in Table 16, as the format of the Senate ballot paper incentivises those candidates – such as David Pocock – to establish their own party entity, if only for the purpose of the campaign. As mentioned on page 17, Pocock campaigned as a member of the ‘David Pocock party’, and so appears in funding and disclosure data as a party rather than an independent.

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