{"id":607964,"date":"2026-04-15T07:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607964\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:16:16","slug":"victorian-independent-candidates-win-high-court-battle-over-cap-on-political-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607964\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian independent candidates win High Court battle over cap on political donations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court has scrapped Victoria’s political donation and disclosure laws just seven months out from the state’s upcoming election.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary decision was welcomed by integrity watchdogs that have criticised what they called a “loophole” in Victorian election law, but the state government and opposition expressed concern over the state being left without a system for regulating political donations ahead of polls in November.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for independents Paul Hopper and Melissa Lowe had argued Victoria’s $4,970 cap on campaign donations from individuals was unfair.<\/p>\n

That was because a separate system existed allowing three major parties \u2014 Labor, the Liberals and Nationals \u2014 to receive sizeable donations from “nominated entities”.<\/p>\n

The independents argued this risked allowing wealthy voices to drown out others, and placed an impermissible burden on the implied freedom of political communication under the constitution.<\/p>\n

The High Court found the nominated entity system<\/a> benefited major parties.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Independent candidate Melissa Lowe ran in the seat of Hawthorn at the 2022 Victorian election. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

But the court went further than what was asked by the challengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of scrapping sections pertaining specifically to the cap and nominated entity system, it struck out an 89-page section of Victoria’s electoral legislation that also deals with a ban on foreign donations, reporting obligations around political donations and campaign expenditure.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said it was disappointed by the decision.<\/p>\n

“This is a win for billionaires and a loss for transparency. We are considering our options,” they said.<\/p>\n

Law was wholly invalid, court says<\/p>\n

The problem arose when the state introduced the $4,970 cap but excepted what was known as “nominated entities”<\/a>, which were an avenue for fundraising.<\/p>\n

Nominated entities registered before 2020 were eligible to avoid the cap.<\/p>\n

The state agreed the law did place a burden on the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication but said the cap was justified to curb corruption and prevent undue influence.<\/p>\n

In other arguments, the state told the High Court the major parties were the ones which form government and for that reason different treatment was warranted.<\/p>\n

But it was the time limitation that sank its defence. The state eventually conceded the 2020 cut-off could not be justified and was invalid.<\/p>\n

The High Court said the law was wholly invalid.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Independent candidate Paul Hopper welcomed the High Court ruling. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

Both independents involved in the case welcomed the ruling.<\/p>\n

“Thanks to this verdict, the days of major parties rigging elections to serve themselves are over,” Mr Hopper said.<\/p>\n

Ms Lowe noted the wider implications for Australian democracy.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great day for democracy and goes a long way to enshrining a level playing field in our elections and a chink in the armour of the two major parties’ duopoly,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It has implications for the fairness of electoral laws around the country.”<\/p>\n

The Australia Institute, a progressive think tank, agreed.<\/p>\n

“Victoria’s donation cap, with its many loopholes, is undemocratic,” said director of the institute’s democracy and accountability program, Bill Browne.<\/p>\n

“The whole political finance system\u00a0was implemented in an unfair and undemocratic way, so that major party spending\u00a0was barely affected but minor parties and independents face an uphill battle.”<\/p>\n

Mr Browne said the High Court decision gave the Victorian parliament a chance to “go back to the drawing board, consult with voters and design a fair political finance system”.<\/p>\n

Decision likely to have national consequences<\/p>\n

Victoria’s Shadow Attorney-General James Newbury said the verdict presented “a very big problem for the integrity of our electoral system”.<\/p>\n

“We now have, effectively, no donation system, no cap system, and no limits on foreign donations,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

James Newbury says the High Court decision will have “a flow-on effect to the federal system”. (AAP: James Ross)<\/p>\n

Mr Newbury said the opposition would work with the government in good faith to fix the issue.<\/p>\n

“We cannot, for even one day, have a system whereby we have no donation limits, no caps, no transparency, no reporting, no limits on foreign donations,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is going to have a flow-on effect to the federal system, because the federal laws are modelled off Victoria, as are South Australia and WA.”<\/p>\n

Former federal independents Zoe Daniel and Rex Patrick had been waiting on today’s result as they gear up to mount a similar challenge to Commonwealth laws.<\/p>\n

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell called for the government to immediately introduce laws capping political donations after the court threw out its “botched” donation laws over a “dodgy loophole”.<\/p>\n

“In Labor’s desperate attempt to cling onto their political slush funds, Labor have completely botched these donation laws,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Ellen<\/p>\n

Ellen Sandell says the Victorian government should urgently introduce laws capping political donations. (AAP: James Ross)<\/p>\n

“As a result, the Victorian state election this November could be influenced by multi-million-dollar donations from big corporations, Gina Rinehart and other billionaires who want to buy our democracy for their own gain,” Ms Sandell said.<\/p>\n

“We cannot afford to have a system like the United States where billionaires and big corporations can buy politicians and elections.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has scrapped Victoria’s political donation and disclosure laws just seven months out from the state’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37921,44023,4268,43,31861,44,19828,84,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-607964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-candidate","tag-donations","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-news","tag-party","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}