The former boss of the Victorian Liberals will pay $40,000 in fines after he fell foul of electoral advertising laws, undermining voters’ rights.
The Australian Electoral Commission sued former Victorian Liberals director Sam McQuestin over four advertisements placed in the Geelong Advertiser before the 2022 federal election.
The commission alleged McQuestin, whose full name is Charles David McQuestin, breached electoral laws by not properly declaring the ads came from him and the Liberal Party.
One of the newspaper ads was a full-page attack on sitting Labor MP Libby Coker, while another was a full-page portrait of Liberal candidate for Corangamite Stephanie Asher along with a how-to-vote card.
Both paid political advertisements contained authorisations in small writing towards the bottom of the page.
Political advertising laws in Australia require authorisations to be made prominently, legibly and in contrasting text.
McQuestin admitted to the allegations but fought against paying a fine of up to $150,000, which the Electoral Commissioner argued he should cough up for the “intentional” breach.
The ad about Ms Coker was the subject of three complaints to the commission.
Federal Court Justice Michael Hugh O’Bryan on Tuesday ruled McQuestin should pay a total $40,000 in fines, but the former Victorian Liberals boss previously told the court the party would pay any penalty.
“The contravening advertisements were likely seen by tens of thousands of voters,” Justice O’Bryan said in a judgement.
“That is a significant matter. The failure to include legible particulars in the anti-Coker advertisement was a serious failure because that advertisement did not otherwise identify the person or political party on whose behalf the advertisement was placed.”
McQuestin did not explain why the contraventions happened and rather suggested the busy final days of a federal election campaign often meant ads were “approved on an ongoing basis, and sometimes by way of text message on mobile telephones”.
The judge said while the final days of a campaign may be busy, “the need to protect free and informed voting is not diminished as election day approaches”.
“Indeed, the contrary is true: transparency and accountability become more crucial the closer in time one gets to an election,” Mr O’Bryan said.
The judge found the Liberal Party’s processes were not robust enough to ensure the contraventions did not happen.
“The admitted contraventions undermined the important objective of allowing voters to know who is communicating electoral matter and accordingly protecting Australia’s system of representative democracy,” Justice O’Bryan said.
There was no evidence about whether the ads had any weight on votes in the election, and the Liberal Party candidate for Corangamite did not succeed, Justice O’Bryan said.
The judge also ordered McQuestin to pay the commissioner’s court costs, subject to any objections.
