Ex-MP blindsides election watchdog with surprise High Court appeal over $40k Facebook fines

Former federal MP Andrew Laming has surprised the country’s election watchdog, launching a surprise High Court challenge to overturn doubled penalties he received for three Facebook posts.

Former Bowman MP Andrew Laming is challenging the doubling of fines he received for three Facebook posts, which were found to have breached the Electoral Act. Picture: File

Former Liberal MP Andrew Laming has blindsided the nation’s election watchdog after lodging a High Court challenge over the doubling of fines he received for allegedly failing to disclose he was behind a series of Facebook posts.

Lawyers for Mr Laming filed documents with the High Court this week disputing last month’s Federal Court of Appeal decision which resulted in three fines doubling to $40,000.

Mr Laming’s appeal caught the Australian Electoral Commission off guard with a spokesman saying the AEC learned of the appeal from media reports.

The commission received the application for special leave to appeal on Friday, a day after news of the move was made public.

Documents show the appeal is to challenge the way contraventions to the Electoral Act were counted in the matter.

Former Bowman MP Andrew Laming has lodged an appeal to the High Court after fines he received for three Facebook posts were doubled to $40,000.

The full bench of the Federal Court of Appeal increased Mr Laming’s fines to $40,000 in August after upholding an appeal by the electoral commission.

Mr Laming was initially fined $20,000 in pecuniary penalties when the matter was first judged in August 2023.

Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah KC found the “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” page 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.

Justice Rangiah fined Mr Laming $10,000 for a “serious” post on the 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.

The Australian Electoral Commission appealed the $20,000 in fines in September 2023 claiming the total was inadequate as the three breaches amounted to more contraventions as there were 28 comments and clicks on the Facebook posts.

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 Laming also lodged a counter appeal in September last year, but it was later dismissed.

The Federal Court held an initial hearing in February this year before making its August ruling.

Last month, 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 after the penalties were doubled, 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.”

The High Court is yet to decide on whether to allow the appeal.