South Australia’s election laws will give major parties and One Nation millions of taxpayer dollars – if they are even constitutional

The South Australian election earlier this year was the first test of the dramatic changes that the Malinauskas Labor Government made to democracy in the state.

The declaration of the final electoral results this week confirms that One Nation’s spectacular rise will make the minor party a major beneficiary of the changes.

In total, One Nation will likely be entitled to over $6 million in public funding over the next term of parliament – most of which would not have been available under the old system.

Under Labor’s electoral changes, to compensate for the ban on most private political donations, established political parties and sitting MPs receive generous taxpayer funding from South Australians (freeing those private donations to go to federal campaigns instead).

Admin funding

A political party with 10 or more MPs receives $1.6 million per year to spend on party administration. One Nation is on track for seven seats (four in the lower house and three in the upper house), entitling them to $1.0 million per year – or $4.2 million over the four-year electoral cycle.

On 11 seats, the Liberals scrape through to the full $1.6 million entitlement – but a split in the party (as floated by Liberal senator Alex Antic) or a couple of defections would cost them money.

The Greens, with two MPs, will receive $490,000 per year, three times as much as upper house MP Sarah Game on $170,000. The four independent MPs are entitled to $40,000 a year each.

The taxpayer funding comes with few strings attached, nothing like the strict conditions placed on other publicly funded institutions like the ABC, art galleries or museums. The funding does give a sitting MP leverage over the party branch, since, by defecting, the MP can deprive the party of hundreds of thousands of dollars over an election cycle.

Campaign funding

The Labor Government also dramatically increased taxpayer support for the election campaigns of parties and candidates. This funding is calculated on a per-vote received basis, and is a combination of a post-election reimbursement and a pre-election advance funding entitlement.

One Nation will receive over $2 million in campaign funding for the next South Australian election.

One Nation spent just $3.3 million nationally in the 2024–25 federal election year. Come the next state election, they will be able to spend about that much in South Australia alone.

The Liberal Party will struggle, with about $2.3 million in campaign funding.

Normally, a party can turn to private funding to make up the difference – but South Australia’s new donation ban closes off that avenue.

Labor will receive the maximum entitlement of $4.0 million.

Victoria’s laws have been struck down, but South Australia’s have a similar loophole

In April 2026, the High Court of Australia struck down Victoria’s political finance laws because they included a “nominated entities” loophole that unfairly favoured the major parties. Contributions from nominated entities to major parties were unlimited, but everyone else was subject to the strict donation cap. The freedom of political communication protected by the Australian Constitution did not allow Victoria to impose strict donation laws if the major parties got a workaround.

South Australia’s laws also include a nominated entities loophole (although, unlike Victoria, the nominated entity money can only be spent on the party, not on campaigning). The nominated entities provisions were added at the last minute, after the very limited consultation process had concluded.

There was no inquiry into these undemocratic laws

South Australia’s new laws are generous towards sitting MPs and established parties, but miserly towards independent candidates and new entrants. A party that does badly at one election is starved of funds for the next, creating a vicious cycle. The money allocated for party administration bears no relationship to how much it actually costs to administer a party.

A parliamentary inquiry into the new donation ban and public funding laws could test them against the principles of fair political finance reform, and recommend reforms so the laws respect South Australians’ freedom of political communication.