News
21 September, 2026
Berry slams behaviour at 2025 polling booths
Member for Whitlam Carol Berry has used a Parliamentary speech to criticise the conduct of polling booth volunteers at the 2025 Federal Election.
Member for Whitlam Carol Berry has used a Parliamentary speech to criticise the conduct of polling booth volunteers at the 2025 Federal Election.
While Mrs Berry spoke specifically about the “behaviour associated with Liberal Party campaigning at many polling booth locations,” concerns have also been raised about campaign workers from other parties.
A parliamentary inquiry into the 2025 Federal Election released an interim report in July detailing a sharp rise in aggressive, intimidating and antisocial behaviour at Australian polling booths.
The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters heard evidence that voters, political participants and poll workers had been subjected to aggressive, obstructive and intimidating behaviour.
The alleged antisocial behaviours included yelling and verbal abuse, harassment and intimidation, obstruction, the aggressive ‘shepherding’ of vulnerable voters including the elderly and people with mobility issues and acts of physical aggression.
Some of the submissions to the committee referred to incidents in the Southern Highlands.
Chair of the Joint Standing Committee, Jerome Laxale MP, said ‘conventions had been deliberately broken’ and the issue needed to be addressed.
“Events abroad have shown us that democracy is fragile, that it can be eroded and in some cases broken,” Mr Laxale said.
“We shouldn’t sit back while the foundations for mirroring these events begin to occur here – and we shouldn’t fear applying remedy when needed.”
Mrs Berry told Parliament that she had witnessed behaviour at the 2025 election “that does not belong in a free and respectful democracy”.
“Elections should be conducted in a manner that allows every Australian to vote without intimidation, pressure or undue influence,” she said.
“In my electorate, booths were aggressively overrun with Liberal Party campaign workers and materials, creating an environment that many voters found intimidating and overwhelming.”
Mrs Berry said she had observed people with sensory issues who were visibly distressed by the experience and voters with “observable cognitive impairment” being told how to vote.
“As a female candidate, I also witnessed and experienced inappropriate behaviour towards women, directed towards myself and other female booth workers.
“Such conduct has no place in Australian life.
“While volunteers from most parties and independent campaigns conducted themselves respectfully, the behaviour that caused concern was largely associated with Liberal Party booth operations involving members of the Exclusive Brethren.”
One of the Joint Standing Committee’s recommendations in the interim report is for Commonwealth legislation to be amended to allow the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) “to make an enforceable and mandatory code of conduct for candidates, elected representatives, campaign workers, third party participants and volunteers within and around federal polling booths”.
It also recommended that the AEC be granted additional statutory powers to issue warnings to volunteers who breach the newly developed code of conduct and to direct volunteers to leave the polling place for a defined period of time “in cases involving repeated or egregious breaches of the code of conduct”.
“The Committee is of the view that the malignant conduct seen at polling places throughout Australia during the 2025 election cannot be allowed to become the new normal,” the interim report said.
“While federal elections have operated until 2025 without the need to codify and enforce social norms, the Committee considers that a tipping point has been reached, requiring actions to implement deliberate collective restraint and to ensure the positive, safe and respectful voting experience is maintained.”
Voters posting on Mrs Berry’s Facebook page suggested it was time to get rid of volunteers handing out How to Vote materials at polling booths.
Southern Highlands resident Dr Raymond Khoury questioned the need for paper How to Vote forms given paper is now “an outdated form of communication”.
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