Election advertisement authorisation - Full residential address statement
A media article dated 7 March reports that the Chief Electoral Officer agrees that the promoter statement required in party election advertisements promoted by the party’s financial agent under the Electoral Finance Act can include the address of the party. This is not the view of the Chief Electoral Officer.
The view of the Chief Electoral Office and the Electoral Commission is that the law requires that election advertisements promoted by the financial agents of parties, candidates or third parties must contain a statement setting out the name of the financial agent and the full address of the place where that person usually lives.
Section 63(2) of the Electoral Finance Act 2007 provides that no promoter may cause an advertisement to be published unless it contains a statement setting out the name and address of the promoter. Subsection (3) sets out who is entitled to be a promoter. Only financial agents of parties, candidates and third parties and promoters who spend less than $12,000 in total or $1000 in relation to a candidate advertisement are permitted under the provision to promote election advertisements.
The financial agents of parties, candidates and third parties must by definition be individuals (see section 9 of the Act). Section 4 of the Act defines address, in relation to individuals, to be the full address of the place where the person usually lives.