Australian Electoral Commission Says It Does Not Want Power to Regulate Political Messaging

Votes are counted at the Australian Electoral Commission in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct. 14, 2023. Martin Keep/AFP via Getty Images

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has said it does not want the power to regulate the messaging of political candidates due to the impact it would have on people’s trust.

During a recent Senate inquiry hearing, AEC’s representatives were questioned about their views on the Misinformation Bill and the issue that political messages could be considered dis- and misinformation.

In response, AEC Electoral Commissioner Tom Roger said the agency currently did not have the power to regulate political content, or determine the truth of statements given by candidates.

“Not only have we not got that power. We don’t want that power either for a whole range of reasons,” he said.

“Our role is to look at the electoral process rather than the truth of statements by candidates about other candidates or party platforms.”

While Roger said the AEC would fulfil the role of assessing the truth in political advertising if required by the parliament, he warned that such action would have far-reaching implications.

“Whatever the parliament asks or tells us to do, we'll do it,” he said.

“However, we’ve been very clear that we think giving the AEC the responsibility for determining truth in political advertising will really damage our reputation.”

The commissioner noted that people’s trust in the outcome of elections was the number one issue for the AEC.

“That trust bit is so critical when we have to pronounce the truth of a statement by a candidate about what another candidate or party might be doing,” he said.

“It’s really going to damage our neutrality, or our perceived neutrality. It’s definitely a bad idea for us to have that responsibility.”

According to Roger, the AEC has built a good reputation among voters, as its research showed that nine in ten Australians trust the agency’s ability to count votes.

Roger’s remarks came as the Labor government had revised the bill to include government-authorised content and electoral matters in its scope.

This would result in content produced by the government or political parties being subject to the same regulation as online posts by individuals.

AEC’s Handling of Misinformation About Electoral Process

While refusing the role of assessing the truth of political messages, Roger said it was his agency’s duty to deal with misinformation about the electoral process.

Specifically, the commissioner said the AEC maintained a disinformation register, which contained false information that could affect voters.

“For example, if someone came out and said voting is no longer compulsory, we would absolutely put that on our disinformation register because that could mislead voters,” he said.

“We'll put on the register what it is and what we’re doing about it and what the truth is.

“We'll also put some sort of post on our various social media platforms pointing to what the facts are about that situation.”

Furthermore, Roger stated that the AEC had built relationships with digital platforms and worked with them to tackle misinformation in the lead-up to electoral events.

He acknowledged that the AEC asked platforms to remove things like threats to staff and deliberate threats of violence.

Roger also noted that the CEO tried to avoid censoring people for a variety of reasons and instead educate them on electoral matters.

He gave the example of some national digital literacy campaigns run by the agency during the election period, which were cost-effective and achieved good results.