Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment 2022

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment 2022

## What it does

This bill updates the rules for how Australian referendums are run. It makes changes to postal voting, how votes are counted and checked, campaign spending disclosures, and various other technical procedures used when Australians are asked to vote on constitutional changes.

## Why it matters

Referendums are how Australians decide on changes to the Constitution—they're rare but important. Updating these rules makes the process clearer, more transparent (especially around who's funding campaign ads), and easier for people to participate in, including those who can't get to a polling booth.

## Key details

- **Postal voting changes**: Makes it easier for people to vote by mail in referendums
- **Campaign money transparency**: Requires groups running "Yes" or "No" campaigns to disclose their funding sources, similar to rules for election campaigns
- **Starts immediately**: The changes take effect as soon as the bill receives Royal Assent, except for some rules that only apply until the next federal election

Official Description

Amends the: Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 to: align postal voting procedures in referendums with equivalent procedures in federal elections; enable the early opening and sorting of pre-poll ordinary votes, and the extraction of declaration votes during preliminary scrutiny; align authorisation requirements with the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 ; establish a financial disclosure and foreign donation restrictions framework for referendum campaigning; prohibit foreign donations of $100 or more for referendum campaigning, and prohibit foreign campaigners from fundraising or directly incurring referendum expenditure in a financial year equal to or more than $1,000; enable the Electoral Commissioner to make modifications to certain aspects of a referendum during a declared emergency; and make technical amendments; and Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 to: extend the application of the designated elector framework to referendums; and make consequential amendments.

Committee Referrals

Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

1 Dec 2022

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

27 Mar 2023

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

Constituent votes

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