Australian Electoral Commission warehouse, 2022 (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
Australian Electoral Commission warehouse, 2022 (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Back during the 2019-2022 term, the then Coalition government introduced two major changes to party registration law. The first was to increase the registration threshold from 500 to 1,500 members (parliamentary parties excepted). The second was a ban on parties using words that were contained in the name of an earlier registered party. 

Party registration and deregistration were frozen for nearly three months during the Dunkley and Cook by-elections but are now free to resume with the writs being returned. Of the eight parties that climbed Mount 1,500 to be newly registered for the 2022 election or shortly afterwards, five are already deregistered and a sixth is being considered. As