Third-party campaigning organisations

Whether or not we view the 2022 federal election as a win for Labor or a loss for the Liberals, we must recognise the prominence of campaigning organisations—most notably, Climate 200—in the leadup to the election as a victory for third parties. In Australian electoral law a third party is defined as an individual or entity that is not a political party–associated entity or a parliamentarian and that incurs regular electoral expenditure of more than about $15,000 per annum. Traditionally within Australian politics, third parties have tended to be industry or business-oriented interest groups and unions that choose to spend money supporting candidates, parties or ideas during an election campaign. Over the past 10–15 years, new organisations have emerged as active third parties, including environmental, animal rights, human rights and religious organisations and, in particular, GetUp!, which is featured in this chapter. During the same period, concerns about the influence of money and fundraising donations in politics have heightened, leading to several new iterations of regulations around the actions and fundraising activities of third parties. Arguably, electoral law has been changed to try to curtail the emergence of new organisations, as well as make both their fundraising activities and their political activities much more transparent.