Australian Federal Election 2025
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week announced that the Australian Federal Election will be held on Saturday 3 May 2025. At the election, all 150 seats of the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate will be contested in what the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says will be Australia’s largest ever federal election.
Australia is one of the few countries in the world in which it is compulsory to vote. By law, all Australian citizens aged 18 and over must enrol and vote in both state and federal elections. If you haven’t previously enrolled to vote or need to update your details, you have until 8:00pm local time on Monday 7th April 2025 by which to do so. Enrolling or updating your details can be done through the AEC website.
There are a number of measures in place to ensure that people living with disability are not excluded from voting. Before the voting period starts, the AEC will publish the location of all polling places on its Where to Vote tool and each polling place will have an accessibility rating, which will include details about wheelchair access and any other accessibility features, including the availability of hearing loops and text to speech pens.
A virtual Auslan interpreter service will be available throughout the voting period at every early voting centre and polling place. Voters can access the service via the Convo Australia app and by scanning the QR code on the poster in the polling place.
If you are unable to vote on election day, there will be hundreds of early voting centres open in the two weeks prior. Locations will be made available closer to the early voting period and will be listed on the Where to Vote tool.
If you are unable to attend a polling place to vote due to disability or some other reason, you can apply for a postal vote. Postal vote applications close at 6:00pm on Wednesday 30th April 2025.
Perhaps more than ever, how we vote in the upcoming federal election could be crucial to determining the future of LGBTQIA+ and disability rights in Australia. The re-election of President Trump in the United States and his highly discriminatory policies that target the LGBTQIA+ and disability communities, along with other vulnerable groups, will no doubt embolden conservative forces here in Australia. Already we have seen conservative state and territory governments begin implementing anti-LGBTQIA+ agendas in the form of the Queensland Government blocking young trans people from accessing hormone therapies in the state’s public health system and the Northern Territory Government ordering pride flags to be removed from public hospitals.
As the federal election approaches, Queerly Different will be reviewing how key political parties and prominent Independents have positioned themselves on queer and disability related issues in the past and any associated policies they are taking to the election. Given the number of political parties and independent candidates that will contest the election, it isn’t possible to review all of them and it is recommended that each person researches the positions of their local candidates on the issues that matter to them.