Chaney brings forward simple fix to strengthen public trust in electoral process

Independent Member for Curtin Kate Chaney will introduce a Bill today to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act to protect voters’ personal information, by removing the role of political parties or candidates in submitting postal vote applications. 

The Bill ensures postal vote applications may not be sent to the Australian Electoral Commission on behalf of voters by candidates or parties.

The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Protecting Voters) Bill 2025 will remove the ability for political parties or candidates to use this important electoral process to harvest personal data from voters, which will help to maintain trust in our electoral processes.

“The integrity of our electoral process and the independence of the AEC is undermined by political parties and candidates using the postal vote application process to harvest personal data,” Ms Chaney said.
“With the rise of misinformation and distrust of politicians, this is a straightforward measure that the Government could include in its election reforms ahead of the next election.”

The AEC sends postal vote ballot papers to a voter after receiving a written application. The application form includes the voter’s name, address, telephone number, email address and a security question and answer.

“It has become common practice for the major parties to send unsolicited mail to voters that includes a postal vote application form, a reply-paid envelope and campaign materials,” Ms Chaney said.
“Often, the reply-paid envelope has a generic sounding return address, such as ‘Processing Centre’, to downplay the fact the voter is handing over their personal information to a political entity.
Voters unknowingly return the form to the party or candidate who sent it to them, not the AEC. The party or candidate can then legally capture the voter’s personal information for their own, unregulated use before sending the application on to the AEC.
There is nothing to prevent a party or candidate from using this data to contact the voter in the future, or from selling this data on to other entities.”

Recommendation 21 of the final report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters provides: that section 184 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 be amended to clarify that postal vote applications must be sent directly to the Australian Electoral Commission’s nominated addresses.
In its JSCEM submission, the AEC stated that it believes the distribution and collection of postal vote applications by candidates and parties ‘creates eligibility confusion and privacy concerns amongst voters.’

“My Bill proposes is a simple fix that responds to recommendation 21 of the JSCEM report and the concerns of the AEC,” Ms Chaney said.
“The number of people relying on postal votes in federal elections has almost tripled since 2007, meaning the integrity of our postal voting process is more important than ever.”

The number of postal votes received in federal elections has increased from 5.1 percent of total votes in 2004 to record highs of 14.6 percent in 2022, and 13.6% in 2025.

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Cade Smith | 0408 997 003 | [email protected]