Caps on Electoral Expenditure by Third-Party Campaigners: Unions NSW v New South Wales

Abstract

Unions NSW v New South Wales is a recent decision of the High Court of Australia regarding the implied freedom of political communication. It involved a challenge to two provisions of the Electoral Funding Act 2018 (NSW) relevant to third-party campaigners and followed a period of significant reform in the NSW electoral sphere. The focus of this case note is the Court’s conceptual development of two key principles in electoral case law: the ‘level playing field’ and the principle of ‘political equality’. It suggests that with both principles purporting to serve the same purpose — the equalising of the electoral field — the Court’s work in this area will remain of interest in the continuing evolution of the implied freedom jurisprudence.