The Referendum Bill 2025 has introduced firm restrictions on activities in and around polling stations, with heavy penalties for anyone found to be exerting undue influence on voters.
According to the draft provisions, Section 24 makes it an offence for any person to attempt to identify voters entering a polling station, check names against lists outside the station, or set up desks, tables or booths for recording voter information.
“No person must, without lawful authority, endeavour to establish the identity of any person entering a polling station,” the Bill states.
It also prohibits anyone from waiting outside a polling station except for the purpose of voting, or loitering within 200 metres of any polling venue on polling day.
Political parties represented in Parliament may open no more than two offices on polling day, but these must remain outside the 200-metre exclusion zone.
Anyone who breaches these requirements faces fines of up to $1,000 or imprisonment of up to one year.
The Bill goes further in Section 25, which declares that any group of five or more people moving together on polling day in a way “calculated to cause intimidation, alarm or annoyance to any voter” will be deemed an unlawful assembly.
Restrictions also extend to noise and campaign activity. Section 26 makes it an offence to operate loudspeakers or any device producing speech, sound or music in a public place if it interferes with a referendum meeting or causes annoyance to those attending.
“It is an offence for a person to operate any loudspeaker… so as to interfere with any referendum meeting,” the draft law reads.
Offenders again face fines of up to $1,000 or up to one year’s imprisonment.
The Referendum Bill 2025 aims to tighten protections around voter freedom and ensure polling day remains orderly, free from pressure, and accessible to all citizens.
