A parliamentary committee investigating the 2025 federal election has tabled an interim report calling for stricter rules on behaviour around polling booths after a record number of complaints of harassment and intimidation.

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters found that behaviour at polling booths was so bad that 550 people had complained to the Australian Electoral Commission about harassment and intimidation. The police recorded a 17 per cent increase in threats against candidates.

The committee's chairman, Labour MP Jerome Laxale, described the situation as an 'assault on our democracy'. 'Something happened at the 2025 federal election – something that felt like an assault on our democracy,' he said. 'Many described this assault by third parties identified in submissions like the Plymouth Brethren and Advance as a fundamental disruption to the foundations of our free and fair voting process.'

The report found that a record number of third-party campaigners converged on polling booths and created an 'imposing and intimidatory gauntlet' in contested seats. A participant in the committee's Ipswich hearing described the experience as 'absolutely mind-blowingly different to any experience that I've had,' and 'more like a war zone than it was a polling booth'.

The committee's deputy chair, independent MP Monique Ryan, agreed that there was a 'clear escalation in personal safety risk'. 'It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured at a polling place if we do not act,' she said.

The committee recommended a serious crackdown on campaigners' behaviour, an extension of the exclusion zone outside polling booths, and a new definition of 'domestic interference' in elections.

A new code of conduct and registration scheme for campaigners around polling booths should be developed so they can be identified and regulated, the committee said. The government should establish a legal definition, or criminal offence of 'domestic interference' in an election to ensure no player could use co-ordinated harassment to intimidate citizens out of voting or participating.

The committee found that many of the third-party campaigners had run significant campaigns 'without appropriate transparency about who they were'. The electoral commission should get new rules to capture 'significant third parties' so that 'co-ordinated involvement in the electoral process at scale is adequately captured,' the report said.

The Brethren has denied it needed to register as a third party because it insists its thousands of members were individually motivated to campaign, organising in small groups, with no influence or involvement from the church itself.

The committee also recommended limiting campaign signage after what independent MP Zali Steggall called a 'crazy amount of corflutes and wrapping', and another submitter described as 'the Hunger Games' as different campaigners vied for space around booths.

A number of the findings were rejected by the Coalition members of the committee, who particularly objected to mention of the members of the Plymouth Brethren.

'Something happened at the 2025 federal election – something that felt like an assault on our democracy,' said committee chairman Jerome Laxale.

Coalition members described the committee's conduct as a 'partisan witch-hunt of Australians based on their religious faith.'

The committee's recommendations would 'expand the regulatory and enforcement reach of the state over ordinary political participation,' Coalition members said, which would 'burden grassroots involvement and that sit uneasily with the constitutionally implied freedom of political communication.'

The government should consider the committee's recommendations, particularly the new definition of 'domestic interference', the committee said.

Key Facts

  • Record 550 complaints of harassment and intimidation during the 2025 federal election
  • 17 per cent increase in threats against candidates
  • New definition of 'domestic interference' in elections recommended
  • Extension of exclusion zone outside polling booths recommended
  • Limiting campaign signage recommended
  • New code of conduct and registration scheme for campaigners around polling booths recommended

The single sharpest fact in this story is the record number of complaints of harassment and intimidation during the 2025 federal election. This is a serious wake-up call for the Australian government and electoral commission.