Our democracy is under threat
The major parties have re-written the rules to rig elections in their favour. Independents Zoe Daniel and Rex Patrick are fighting back, and taking their case all the way to the High Court.
But they need your support.
Help fund Zoe & Rex’s High Court Challenge
Australians are voting for independents and minor parties in record numbers - and it’s threatening the major party duopoly. Instead of trying to win voters back with better policies, the major parties have colluded to rig election rules in their favour.
Their new electoral finance laws will make it harder for independent MPs and candidates to compete, leaving you with fewer choices at election time.
It’s a direct attack on your voice and your ability to support independent candidates.
Two independent plaintiffs, the former MP for Goldstein Zoe Daniel and former South Australian Senator Rex Patrick, are fighting back, and taking the government all the way to the High Court to get these rules overturned. They’re asking the Court to rule on whether these laws breach Australia’s implied freedom of political communication. But taking a case like this to the High Court isn’t cheap. It requires top-tier legal teams and constitutional barristers.
Every dollar you chip in will go to winning this case, and protecting the integrity of our democracy.
If there are excess funds at the end of this case - either because the Government pays Zoe and Rex’s costs or funds are raised surplus to the final legal costs - then you will be offered a refund. Any remaining amounts will be donated towards further efforts to protect our democracy.
Here’s why these laws are so undemocratic
A healthy democracy must accommodate newcomers and competition — instead, these new laws will dramatically increase major-party and incumbency advantages and impose disproportionate constraints on new challengers. They’re designed to shut out competitors and prop up the major parties, at a time when Australians are abandoning them in record numbers.
If left unchallenged, these laws will dramatically reduce competition in the political arena, closing it off to new entrants and leaving you with fewer choices at election time.
That’s where you come in. Join the fight today.
Major parties can spend millions more than independents
Independents are strictly capped at $800k for their entire campaign while a $90m cap for parties allows them to significantly outspend challengers.
Millions more of your taxpayer dollars will go to the major parties
Labor and the Coalition will get an extra $62m in taxpayer funding each electoral cycle.
If these laws had applied to the 2025 election, public funding would have covered 61% of Labor’s $90 million spending cap and 46% of the Liberals’. Independents, by contrast, would have received an average of just 14% of their far smaller $800,000 cap.
Fundraising will become much more difficult for independents than multi-branch parties
Major parties, through their federal and state branches, can collect up to $450k per year from a single donor. Independents cannot receive more than $50k per year from a single donor (even crowdfunded donors like Climate 200 and others).
Independents will be crippled, the major parties will barely feel the hit
If these new laws had been in place in the lead up to the 2025 election independents would have lost over $11m in donations. Based on the current available data, the major parties would have lost almost nothing.
here's what the experts are saying about these laws
