The Electoral Commission has approved the application of registration from The Independent Group.

Statement of reasons

Having assessed the proposed name, shortname, abbreviation and logo in the application, the Electoral Commission believes it to satisfy all rules. The manifesto is not deemed significantly offensive or satirical, and the constitution fulfils all requirements. The Electoral Commission successfully assessed that 5 of the members provided in the application were members of the party.

Submissions

Submission of ThanksHeadMod

ThanksHeadMod contended that, as the party did not have a formal "party leader", the application must be rejected. Assuming that this is a requirement (a Political Party Handbook accurate as of 22 October 2019 did not contain such a requirement), the constitution of the party designates a "lead delegate" as "the‌ ‌designated‌ ‌contact‌ ‌for‌ ‌all‌ ‌party‌ ‌affairs‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌electoral‌ ‌commission‌", and the Electoral Commission confirmed that the "lead delegate" is the party's equivalent of a party leader for Electoral Commission purposes. Given that the difference between the "lead delegate" and a "party leader" is entirely cosmetic, we believe that there is no issue here.

Submissions of mikiboss and 12MaxWild

mikiboss cited sections of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 in regards to the use of the label "independent" in the party's name and logo, specifically sections 129 and 129A. Section 129, among other things, prevents the Electoral Commission from registering parties that contain the words "Independent Party", or that use the word "Independent" in combination with the name, abbreviation or acronym of an existing registered party. Section 129A is much the same, but for party logos. Another submission of similar concern was recieved from 12MaxWild. Given the logo of the party is simply text reading "The Independent Group", we shall treat the issue of the name and the logo as one and the same.

Neither the name nor the logo contain the words"Independent Party". Neither the proposed name or logo contain any word that is also used in a registered party (excluding "the", but for obvious reasons that is not an issue), and as such we believe that both the name and the logo do not fall foul of the Act. We would also like to note a prior decision by the AEC, which registered the Peter Andren Independent Group, specifically noting that the party name "[did] not offend any of these prohibitions" in the Act.

Other submissions

Two submissions concerning the name and logo, respectively, were recieved from TheSensibleCentre and Mad_Bear_O_Melbourne. Given these were merely value judgements about aesthetics (i:e, deeming the presence of a "lead delegate" cringe, calling the logo "trashblash"), there is not much that the AEC can address here. We do not take a position on the graphic design of logos or the name of party heads. I am addressing these submissions here for the purpose of completion.