Number of party members
Derek MacLeod made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Electoral Commission
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, I request any and all documentation that is available relating to the membership figures of the United Australia Party (UAP). I consider this information to be in the public interest, as the legitimacy of the party's claim of having over 80,000 members has been questioned.
Thank you and kind regards,
Derek MacLeod
Our reference: LEX3044
Dear Derek
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request for access to documents (attached) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the following terms:
“I request any and all documentation that is available relating to the
membership figures of the United Australia Party (UAP). I consider this
information to be in the public interest, as the legitimacy of the party's
claim of having over 80,000 members has been questioned”.
Party Membership
Regarding the registration of political parties, all federally registered
political parties need to meet the eligibility requirements set out in s
123 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act). An eligible
political party means a political party that:
(a) either:
(i) is a Parliamentary party; or
(ii) has at least 1,500 members;
Parliamentary party means a political party at least one member of which
is a member of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.
In September 2021, The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration
Integrity) Act 2021 (Party Registration Act) increased membership
requirements from ‘at least 500’ to ‘at least 1,500 members’.
UAP Party Registration
o As of February 2021, UAP meets the definition of a Parliamentary
party. Prior to this, UAP was a non-Parliamentary party.
o The eligibility review for UAP as a non-Parliamentary party was last
conducted in April 2020, under the previous legislative requirement of
‘at least 500 members’. At this time UAP submitted compliant
membership lists of between 500 and 550 members.
Given the reason for your request, and that the UAP has had no requirement
to prove membership above 500 members to the AEC or provide the AEC with
any information supporting their total claimed membership, we suggest that
documents available will not fall within in the scope of your request.
Next Steps
Considering the information above, we request that you consider whether
you wish to continue with your FOI application.
If the information and explanation provided above is satisfactory, we
request that you please withdraw your request in writing by return email.
Withdrawing you request does not preclude you from making a future FOI
request should you decide to seek different documents.
However if you choose to proceed with your FOI request, the following
information will apply.
Timeframe to process your request
Your request was received by the Australian Electoral Commission (the AEC)
on 17 June 2022, and the 30 day statutory timeframe for processing your
request commenced from the day after that date. You should expect to
receive a decision from us by 17 July 2022. The period of 30 days may be
extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons. We
will advise you if this timeframe is extended.
Charges
If your request proceeds further, we will advise you if any charge is
payable to process your request and the amount of any charge as soon as
practicable.
Your address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address to which we can
send notices. You have advised that your electronic address is
[1][FOI #9034 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible
if you wish for notices and correspondence to be sent to a different
address. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, notices and
correspondence will continue to be sent to the address specified above.
Administrative release of documents
The AEC has administrative access arrangements for the release of certain
documents without the need for a formal freedom of information request.
Where appropriate we may offer you documents via the administrative access
scheme in lieu of processing under the FOI Act. Information relating to
third parties cannot be released via administrative access. You will be
notified when documents are released to you on an administrative access
basis.
Disclosure log
Documents released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log
on the AEC's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this
publication, however it is subject to certain exceptions, including where
publication of personal, business, professional or commercial information
would be unreasonable.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email [2][email address], or contact our
enquiries line on 13 23 26.
Yours sincerely
Greg
Australian Electoral Commission
T: 13 23 26
Dear Derek
Regarding your recent Freedom of Information request, we would be grateful
if you could please confirm if you would like to proceed with your request
given the information provided below.
If you would like to discuss further, you can contact Melahni, Acting
Manager of our FOI team on 13 23 26.
Kind regards,
Greg
Australian Electoral Commission
T: 13 23 26
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[1]Australian Electoral Commission logo [2]Australian Electoral Commission
From: FOI <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, 29 June 2022 2:48 PM
To: '[FOI #9034 email]'
<[FOI #9034 email]>
Cc: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: LEX3044 - Freedom of Information Request - Acknowledgement
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
Our reference: LEX3044
Dear Derek
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request for access to documents (attached) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the following terms:
“I request any and all documentation that is available relating to the
membership figures of the United Australia Party (UAP). I consider this
information to be in the public interest, as the legitimacy of the party's
claim of having over 80,000 members has been questioned”.
Party Membership
Regarding the registration of political parties, all federally registered
political parties need to meet the eligibility requirements set out in s
123 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act). An eligible
political party means a political party that:
(a) either:
(i) is a Parliamentary party; or
(ii) has at least 1,500 members;
Parliamentary party means a political party at least one member of which
is a member of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.
In September 2021, The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration
Integrity) Act 2021 (Party Registration Act) increased membership
requirements from ‘at least 500’ to ‘at least 1,500 members’.
UAP Party Registration
o As of February 2021, UAP meets the definition of a Parliamentary
party. Prior to this, UAP was a non-Parliamentary party.
o The eligibility review for UAP as a non-Parliamentary party was last
conducted in April 2020, under the previous legislative requirement of
‘at least 500 members’. At this time UAP submitted compliant
membership lists of between 500 and 550 members.
Given the reason for your request, and that the UAP has had no requirement
to prove membership above 500 members to the AEC or provide the AEC with
any information supporting their total claimed membership, we suggest that
documents available will not fall within in the scope of your request.
Next Steps
Considering the information above, we request that you consider whether
you wish to continue with your FOI application.
If the information and explanation provided above is satisfactory, we
request that you please withdraw your request in writing by return email.
Withdrawing you request does not preclude you from making a future FOI
request should you decide to seek different documents.
However if you choose to proceed with your FOI request, the following
information will apply.
Timeframe to process your request
Your request was received by the Australian Electoral Commission (the AEC)
on 17 June 2022, and the 30 day statutory timeframe for processing your
request commenced from the day after that date. You should expect to
receive a decision from us by 17 July 2022. The period of 30 days may be
extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons. We
will advise you if this timeframe is extended.
Charges
If your request proceeds further, we will advise you if any charge is
payable to process your request and the amount of any charge as soon as
practicable.
Your address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address to which we can
send notices. You have advised that your electronic address is
[3][FOI #9034 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible
if you wish for notices and correspondence to be sent to a different
address. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, notices and
correspondence will continue to be sent to the address specified above.
Administrative release of documents
The AEC has administrative access arrangements for the release of certain
documents without the need for a formal freedom of information request.
Where appropriate we may offer you documents via the administrative access
scheme in lieu of processing under the FOI Act. Information relating to
third parties cannot be released via administrative access. You will be
notified when documents are released to you on an administrative access
basis.
Disclosure log
Documents released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log
on the AEC's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this
publication, however it is subject to certain exceptions, including where
publication of personal, business, professional or commercial information
would be unreasonable.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email [4][email address], or contact our
enquiries line on 13 23 26.
Yours sincerely
Greg
Australian Electoral Commission
T: 13 23 26
Dear Derek
Your Freedom of Information Request – section 24AB consultation
I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), received on 17 June 2022 made in the
following terms:
o any and all documentation that is available relating to the membership
figures of the United Australia Party (UAP). I consider this
information to be in the public interest, as the legitimacy of the
party's claim of having over 80,000 members has been questioned.
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make
decisions in relation to FOI requests.
As we have previously advised, given the reason for your request and that
the UAP has had no requirement to prove membership above 500 members to
the AEC or provide the AEC with any information supporting their total
claimed membership, documents available will not fall within the scope of
your request. After providing this advice, we invited you to consider
whether you wished to proceed with your FOI application. As currently
drafted, your request is very broad and does not relate to documents the
AEC would ordinarily hold. Accordingly, your request does not meet the
formal requirements of an FOI request, to provide such information as is
reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to
identify the document that is requested (s 15(2)(b)).
This this will constitute a 'practical refusal reason' for the purposes of
section 24 under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
On this basis, we intend to refuse access to the documents you requested.
However, before we make a final decision to do this, you have an
opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to
proceed.
You may wish to revise your request to narrow the scope of documents, or
consider what specific documents are necessary for your request.
Before the end of the 14 day consultation period, you must write to the
AEC Contact Officer below and either:
o withdraw your request;
o make a revised request; or
o tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The 14 day consultation period will start on the day after you receive
this notice.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from AEC to revise
your request. If you revise your request to adequately address the
exemption reason outlined above, the AEC will recommence processing it.
The time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the 30 day time limit for
processing your request.
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the
consultation period or you do not contact the AEC to discuss your request
during this period, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.
Contact officer
If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please
contact me at [1][AEC request email], or contact our enquiries line on 13 23
26.
Yours sincerely
Mel
T: 13 23 26
Dear Derek
I refer to my below correspondence dated 15 July 2022.
The consultation period has now ended and we have not received a revised
request from you.
As such, your request has been taken to have been withdrawn.
If you have any questions, please contact me at [1][AEC request email], or
contact our enquiries line on 13 23 26.
Yours sincerely
Mel
T: 13 23 26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2]Australian Electoral Commission logo [3]Australian Electoral Commission
From: FOI <[email address]>
Sent: Friday, 15 July 2022 2:23 PM
To: '[FOI #9034 email]'
<[FOI #9034 email]>
Cc: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Your Freedom of Information Request – section 24AB consultation –
LEX3044 [SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Derek
Your Freedom of Information Request – section 24AB consultation
I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), received on 17 June 2022 made in the
following terms:
o any and all documentation that is available relating to the membership
figures of the United Australia Party (UAP). I consider this
information to be in the public interest, as the legitimacy of the
party's claim of having over 80,000 members has been questioned.
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make
decisions in relation to FOI requests.
As we have previously advised, given the reason for your request and that
the UAP has had no requirement to prove membership above 500 members to
the AEC or provide the AEC with any information supporting their total
claimed membership, documents available will not fall within the scope of
your request. After providing this advice, we invited you to consider
whether you wished to proceed with your FOI application. As currently
drafted, your request is very broad and does not relate to documents the
AEC would ordinarily hold. Accordingly, your request does not meet the
formal requirements of an FOI request, to provide such information as is
reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to
identify the document that is requested (s 15(2)(b)).
This this will constitute a 'practical refusal reason' for the purposes of
section 24 under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
On this basis, we intend to refuse access to the documents you requested.
However, before we make a final decision to do this, you have an
opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to
proceed.
You may wish to revise your request to narrow the scope of documents, or
consider what specific documents are necessary for your request.
Before the end of the 14 day consultation period, you must write to the
AEC Contact Officer below and either:
o withdraw your request;
o make a revised request; or
o tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The 14 day consultation period will start on the day after you receive
this notice.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from AEC to revise
your request. If you revise your request to adequately address the
exemption reason outlined above, the AEC will recommence processing it.
The time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the 30 day time limit for
processing your request.
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the
consultation period or you do not contact the AEC to discuss your request
during this period, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.
Contact officer
If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please
contact me at [4][AEC request email], or contact our enquiries line on 13 23
26.
Yours sincerely
Mel
T: 13 23 26