Court doubles Laming’s penalty to $40k over Facebook breaches

A court has doubled former MP Andrew Laming’s penalty to $40,000 for failing to authorise election-related Facebook posts after an electoral commission appeal for a higher fine.

Former federal MP Andrew Laming has had his penalties doubled to $40,000 for breaches stemming from Facebook posts in an action brought by the Australian Electoral Commission. Picture: File

The Federal Court of Appeal has doubled the penalties it has ordered former federal MP Andrew Laming to $40,000 for contravening the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

Mr Laming was originally required to pay $20,000 in pecuniary penalties when the matter was first judged in August 2023, when he was found to have broken the law by not authorising posts on the “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” Facebook page, prior to the 2019 Federal election.

But the Australian Electoral Commission launched an appeal in September with an initial hearing in the Federal Court in February, when the AEC claimed the $20,000 fine issued to the failed Redland mayoral hopeful was inadequate for breaching the Commonwealth Electoral Act in the three Facebook posts.

The commission argued there were 28 contraventions and claimed the three breaches amounted to more because Facebook posts can be shared.

Acting for the AEC, barrister Tim Begbie KC said the Electoral Commissioner had no objections to the primary judge’s penalty analysis except for “getting the number of contraventions wrong as a matter of construction and therefore the maximum penalty wrong,” Mr Begbie told the hearing.

AEC barrister Tim Begbie KC. Picture: File

Laming’s counter appeal, also lodged in September last year, was dismissed.

In August last year, Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah KC fined Mr Laming $10,000 for a “serious” post on the “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” page made in December 2018, and $5000 each for two others made in February and March 2019.

The maximum penalty for a breach of the Act is $25,000.

Justice Rangiah found the Facebook page had “effectively concealed that Mr Laming was its administrator” and there was a “deliberate attempt to conceal that Mr Laming was the author” of a contravening post.

This week, the Federal Court of Appeal agreed with the AEC and increased the penalties to $40,000 with legal costs yet to be resolved.

In a statement, the AEC said it was “pleasing to see the court uphold our appeal and increase the penalty”.

“Authorisations laws are there so that people know the source of election communication.

“With the increasing complexity of the information environment, this has never been more important.

“The result serves as a message to people who fail to authorise their communication that there are potential ramifications.”