Working paper
Federal voter ID laws
This working paper compiles a number of pieces by participants from a seminar to discuss the federal government’s recently announced intentions to enact new voter ID requirements for federal elections—a proposal that raises questions of constitutionality and broader democratic policy.
Article
Scott Morrison wants to outlaw boycott campaigns. But the mining industry doesn’t need protection
The focus of laws against secondary boycotts has never been against consumer groups or movements involving non-employees. There’s an obvious and good reason for this.
Article
From robo calls to spam texts: annoying campaign tricks that are legal
Spamming in texts or by robo-calls may seem perverse, but it's unlikely to disappear. Here are some things you can expect leading up to the May election, and why they're allowed.
Article
The freedom to be a hypocrite
The free speech debate has been marked by selectivity and score-settling Acres of ink and gigaloads of bytes have been spilled in recent times over “free speech.” Sadly, the debate has mostly been self-serving. Much of it has been driven by right-wing voices opposed both...
Article
Old figures on new money
ONCE a year, on the first day of February, the Australian Electoral Commission publishes, verbatim, the political finance disclosures of the political parties and of some donors and third party or lobby groups. The timeliness of this annual data dump – the figures relate to...