Kelly v Australian Electoral Commission

The applicant, Mr. Kelly, sought judicial review of a decision by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to refuse his application for registration as a political party. The matter came before Gleeson CJ in chambers.

The central legal issue was whether the AEC had erred in law by refusing to register Mr. Kelly's proposed political party, the "Citizens Electoral Pty Ltd," on the grounds that the name was too similar to an existing registered political party, the "Citizens Electoral Party." The applicant contended that the AEC's decision was unreasonable and that the names were not, in fact, confusingly similar.

Gleeson CJ considered the provisions of the *Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918* (Cth) concerning the registration of political parties, particularly the requirement that a party's name not be the same as, or substantially similar to, the name of an existing registered party. His Honour found that the AEC had applied the correct legal test in assessing the similarity of the names and that its conclusion that the names were substantially similar was open to it on the material before it. The AEC's decision was therefore not vitiated by an error of law.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.