As I wait to hear the result of the UK’s Clacton by-election, I thought I should ponder the question of why Australia doesn’t have novelty candidates.
The Clacton by-election was triggered by the resignation of Reform Party Leader Nigel Farage. The announcement came amid parliamentary scrutiny of Farage’s personal finances, and allegations concerning undeclared gifts and support. He is re-contesting the seat to, as he puts it, let the people rather than the establishment decide his fate.
It has rather backfired on Farage as none of the ‘establishment’ parties are contesting. His major opponent has turned out to be serial novelty candidate Count Binface, in real life known as Jonathan David Harvey, an Oxford classics graduate and television comedy writer.
The record field of 34 also includes Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, Howling Laud Hope and Baron Von Thunderclap, candidates for Britain’s ‘establishment’ novelty party, the Monster Raving Loony Party.
So how is this allowed and why doesn’t it occur in Australia?
Well, it sort of used to occur, but the law was tightened after several protest candidates representing the Abolish Child Support/Family Court Party adopted vvvveeerrrryyyy lloonngg names to contest the 1998 Federal election.
This included a candidate who appeared on the ballot paper as “Prime Minister John Piss The Family Court and Legal Aid” in John Howard’s seat of Bennelong. He finished 10th in a field of 13 with 183 votes.
In Britain, candidates can appear on the ballot paper using what they claim to be their “commonly used name”. Guidance given to UK Returning Officers is that they must to take whatever has been entered in the commonly used name box of the nomination form.
The only grounds for rejecting a commonly used name is if its use may be likely to mislead or confuse electors, or it is obscene or offensive.
In Australia, the law was changed after the 1998 election by tightening what names could appear on the electoral roll. A candidate must nominate using a form of their name as it appears on the electoral roll. The candidate’s family name must be the same as on the roll, but other names may be as commonly used. So a candidate can use variants of their name (e.g. Bob for Robert), by dropping their middle name or using an anglicised version of their legal name.
I cannot remember quite how the 1998 candidates got on the ballot paper, but today they would be required to have that name appear on the electoral roll first. That would require them to provide proof they have gone through the legal procedures to change their name.
The change bought an end to novelty Senate candidates. Drag keyboardist for the band Jimmy and the Boys appeared on the 1980 NSW Senate ballot paper as Joylene Hairmouth. In protest at One Nation in 1998, an Independent group appeared on the NSW Senate ballot paper with candidates David Mouldfield and Paul-Ian Handsome Handpuppet. Pauline Pantsdown appeared as an ungrouped candidate on the same ballot paper.
A year or two after the change, I remember receiving a phone call from Brisbane performer Tamara Tonite complaining that her electoral enrolment change form had been rejected under her known-as drag name.
We have had one ‘serious’ novelty candidate appear since 1998. Ahead of the 2007 Federal election, some junior clerk doing enrolments allowed a Mr “Of The Above None” to register, allowing him to appear on the ballot paper in the seat of Gilmore at the 2007 election as “NONE, Of The Above”.
None of this is to say Australia hasn’t had joke candidates, some thinking of themselves as serious. Some candidates nominate with the intent of sending up a serious candidate. For instance Labor activist and author Bob Ellis did significant damage to Bronwyn Bishop’s winning margin at the 1994 Mackellar by-election.
So sad to say for those after more humour in Australian politics, no Count Binfaces in Australia.
UPDATE: I forgot about John His Grace the Most Noble Duke of Avram, elected to the Tasmanian Parliament in 1989. He had a long back story I won’t go in to, but he had one impact on Tasmanian electoral law. Under law at the time, the Robson rotation ballot paper began its rotations in alphabetic order. So on 6 of 7 ballot papers, the Duke appeared directly under Premier Robin Gray as his last name started with ‘H’ for ‘His’. Random draw for rotation order was later introduced and more recently the number of rotations was doubled.
And another thought: What I forgot to mention is that at UK elections, candidates get publicity on election night. UK counting is completed on election night in a dedicated counting centre. The result is then read out from a stage in the presence of the candidates. Novelty candidates always come in costume. Australia still has a formal declaration of the result in every seat, but it takes place in an office and around 2-4 weeks after election day. Declarations generally get very little coverage.
The last declaration I remember being covered was in 2007 when John Howard turned up to the Bennelong formal declaration and congratulated Maxine McKew. A lot of candidates don’t bother to turn up.
The word “a” needs to be deleted in this sentence – “In Britain, candidates can appear on the ballot paper using what they claim to be a their “commonly used name”.” (AG – Done)
Not quite a novelty party, but the Australian Sex Party should be remembered for the ambiguous use of the word “Party”.
Subsequently renamed to “Reason”, and I think since de-registered.
IIRC, the reason (heh) for the name change came about because they’d merged with a few other parties and the name was meant to reflect that they weren’t just about sex. They deregistered in 2024 I think due to their leader having health issues at the time (she’s since joined another party).
It merged with Legalise Cannabis
For some reason, I can’t help but think of the first election after the ACT got self government, where we were graced with the Party! Party! Party! and the Sun Ripened Warm Tomato Party.
No mention of Tim Fergurson’s tilt at Kooyong
In 1992 a Tasmanian eccentric Dean Lohrey tried to run for State Parliement under the name “Informal” because he thought the slogan “Vote Informal” was hilarious. The AEC disagreed, and ruled that he had to use his real name. He appealed and in 1992, defending himself (rather poorly) in the High Court of Tasmania, arguing with increasing seriousness for what had begun as a joke. The court ruled that he could not run as “Informal”, despite having legally adopted this name, on the grounds that he had done this very recently and didn’t really go by that name. Not to be outdone, the man who now called himself “Informal” made a point of not answering to his former name, ignoring any mail or documents that used it and insisting, often vehemently, that he be called “Informal” by everyone. I believe he tried to run under this name at least once more but, despite all his efforts, was refused again. He goes by “Informal” to this day, though seems to have completely lost sight of the fact this was originally a joke. Tasmania breeds some strange ones.
COMMENT: He did eventually appear on the ballot paper in Denison at the 1996 Tasmanian (not Federal) election.
Pedantic detail – I know, but …. “…Laud Hope” not “..Loud Hope”.
Maybe a typo? or the spell checker trying to be “helpful”?
No, “Howling Laud Hope” really is the name he uses. It’s a pun on “Lord”. He’s the UK’s longest serving party leader.
I remember Dean Jaensch discussing Suzie Creamcheese from the Happy Birthday Party which appeared in a South Australian election back in the 70’s
Was there not a Susie Creamcheese in SA state election in the 70’s? Joke candidate
Also Stop Asian Immigration Now H Birrel. I believe she changed her name by deed poll . She was not joking though.
I vividly remember the amazing party names at first ACT government election. We had names such as “The Party Party Party!” Party, “The No Self Government” Party, the “Sunshine warm ripened Tomatoes” Party… All brilliant candidates. Eventually, the “No Self Government” people got in, and worked hard to cement Self Government here in the ACT… So much for honesty amongst politicians…..
Nigel Freemarijuana had a few run-ins in this regard, too, didn’t he?
COMMENT: These days he contests as Nigel Quinlan as he can no longer use his former ballot paper name. Ran in the 2024 Inala by-election amongst others.
Also Susie Creamcheese of the Happy Birthday Party back in the 70s
https://www.centreofdemocracy.sa.gov.au/susie-creamcheese-and-the-happy-birthday-party/
Lord Bloody Wog Rollo
There was also Cecil Murgatroyd of the McGillicuddy Serious Party who stood against Bob Hawke in Wills in the late 80s and 90s. I remember seeing him standing on a literal soapbox in the carpark of Barkly Square in Brunswick making absurd promises and telling passers-by to vote for anyone else but himself.
The 2014 Tasmanian state election had one joke candidate – “Fast Freddy” – who ended up getting booted from the tally room because his fat-suit was deemed a security threat. His Facebook page can still be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/vote1fastfreddy/
Are you aware that Crikey have put up a copy of your blog post, behind their paywall?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/08/14/count-binface-nigel-farage-byelection-australia-joke-candidates/
COMMENT: Yes, I offered it to them.
I will have to find my change of name certificate and look up laws.
At least, I don’t have to think about alphabetical order, like Amazon or Altair may have had to.
But still, I don’t expect any of my names to be as catchy or as memorable as “Count Binface”!
Granted, I can take “Dr Who” angle – but “Dr Firstname”, “Dr Lastname”, and “Dr Nickname” all sound altogether dull.
And I am not going to change my name for publicity – and it probably wouldn’t work anyways.
I can still wear a cape, though. Not for publicity – I just genuinely find it more interesting and less restrictive than “lift your hand, pull up whole shirt” western clothing. But difficult to find anything good in shops. Will have to sew it myself.
Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow, or Meow-Meow as they’re better known, ran as a Science Party candidate in 2016 against Anthony Albanese in his seat of Grayndler. They also ran against Barnaby Joyce in the 2017 New England by-election (thanks to Barnaby being a Kiwi).
Although Meow-Meow is actually their legal name.
“I sat down with a group of friends and made a list of names that sounded fun and then we thought of which ones rolled off the tongue the nicest and we came up with one that we thought was novel and fun and I changed it.”
I guess the Official Monster Raving Loony Party made such an impact (they once outpolled a party with 3 sitting MPs; it closed down soon afterwards) that any attempt to legislate such names away in the UK would be regarded as killjoys.
Another critical aspect is that in the UK the electoral register is maintained by the local authority. As there is no local residency requirement for parliamentary elections, a Returning Officer can not check what name a person is registered as. (Only six of the 34 candidates gave addresses in either the Clacton constituency or the wider Tendring local government district.)
UK election law has firmly established the principle that a Returning Officer is required to accept a nomination paper at face value and not go and research a candidate’s details or act on claims by third parties. The key case is Greenway-Stanley v Paterson ([1977] 2 All ER 663 in case notation), when a Returning Officer, who was also the Chief Executive of a council, rejected the nomination paper of the council leader, who he was on very poor terms with, on the grounds his name was not exactly as it appeared on his birth certificate. It is for rival candidates or aggrieved voters to bring a legal challenge.
The law does imply that the “commonly known as” name is one the candidate actually uses. Most serious candidates use this for shortened form of their names, going by their middle names, serious nicknames, using maiden names and so forth without comment. How far a joke candidate is actually known by a name has, to my knowledge, never been tested by the courts – but joke candidates don’t win elections so don’t get their elections challenged.
Don’t forget the Imperial British Conservative Party! And the McGillicuddy Serious Party. Their party platform included recruiting penguins as Australia’s coastal defence force. Cecil G. Murgatroyd ran against Bob Hawke in Wills in two federal elections.
There was a Pirate Party too? Dunno what became of them.
COMMENT: I’m getting numerous suggestions of novelty candidates, almost all of them prior to 1998. The post is about the change in 1998 which made it hard for novelty candidates to nominate so the 1970s and 1980s examples are interesting but before the change I was writing about.
I recall the first ever ACT local govt election that included the “Party Party Party Party Party” on the ballot
In 2002 I ran for President of the UQ Student Union, as the leader of the “None of the Above” party. Our slogan was, of course, “Vote None of the Above” … even though under the random ballot sequence I was placed at the top of the list.
Late to the party… but it’s always enlightening to read Antony’s anecdotes and commentary.
There is no legal magic to changing or adopting a name at common law. Hence the tradition of women taking a husband’s name, or people coming to be known by another name (hey you, ‘Elton John’!) Folk sometimes think paying to lodge a ‘deed poll’ is magic. But it is just one possible form of evidence to help establish the common law test, and not very weighty. The common law test is whether you are known by and use that name. The Fed Court has held that the common law test still underpins the statutory rule the AEC has to apply – subject to statutory rules against obscene/offensive names and a ‘public interest’ exemption.
The exception on top of that for ‘frivolous’ names takes a bit of colour out of things. Ole Albert Langer – of ‘Neither Tweedledum, Tweedledee, vote 1,2,3,3’ fame – was refused enrolment under the name ‘Arthur Dent’. Much to the chagrin of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Fans. Terry Sharples – who I worked with pro bono to have One Nation deregistered in Queensland at turn of the millennium – went on to be a serial candidate (and litigant). He tried to enrol as ‘Ned Kelly’, which seemed a tad presumptuous.
Tamara Tonite, being a Brisbane performer, got in touch with me too. I remember telling them they had a decent case, given they were well known by the name both as a drag artist and a community tv show they had. But the ECQ (IIRC) fell on the side of it just being a stage name.
OTOH Nigel Freemarijuana had long used that name – I even bought a ticket in the HEMP party for fun, at a table (he?) had at Kuranda Market c 1990. An administrative tribunal ruled he had been known by that name – as well as bank accounts in it – so he was able to stand for election under it. Not a joke, so much as a single-issue name! The tribunal ruled there was a positive benefit in people standing under a name by which part of their community knew them.
The British approach was too lax. Men were allowed to stand as ‘Margaret Thatcher’ and ‘Ronald Reagan’ in the early 1980s, with little more than a deed poll to support them. Clearly misleading in the former case. The confusion (ie ‘public interest’) test here may have sunk ‘Mr Linaker-Liberal’ last decade.
Actually the male “Margaret Thatcher” had his nomination rejected (and “Ronald Reagan” was his agent, not another candidate). The case was unreported but is R v Returning Officer for the Parliamentary Constituency of Barnet and Finchley ex parte Bennett v Thatcher [1983] Lexis Citation 2175.
This seems to have drawn a line against candidates trying to change their name to deliberately confuse the electorate (just the previous year the Social Democratic Party leader Roy Jenkins had faced such an impersonator standing for another Social Democratic Party).