New laws banning the use of robocalls and robopolls relating to State elections and deepfake political advertisements have come into effect ahead of the March 2026 State election.
The changes, which have now come into effect, form part of the second phase of the Government's world-leading electoral reforms.
The new laws prohibit political parties, candidates, members of Parliament (MPs) and persons acting on their behalf from making robocalls consisting of unsolicited automated calls containing a pre-recorded message relating to a State election. They also prohibit political parties, candidates, MPs and persons acting on their behalf undertaking robopolling, where automated opinion polls are conducted using a computer script—rather than by an individual—relating to a State election or voting intentions. Anyone caught breaching these laws will face penalties of up to $5,000 for individuals or $10,000 for body corporates.
Under the reforms, the use of AI-generated deepfakes to create electoral ads that depict acts that a person did not perform – without that person's permission - will be banned, with penalties in place of up to $5,000 for people caught in breach.
A person will be able to consent to their image being used in a deepfake advertisement, but those advertisements - and any others that use AI - will need to be clearly labelled as such.
The laws prohibit using AI to generate electoral advertisements, or deepfakes, which have been designed to mislead voters, which has occurred in recent interstate and overseas elections.
Deepfakes are images, video or audio of a real person that have been digitally altered to create an extremely realistic but false depiction of them doing something they did not actually do or say.
The new laws also prohibit political involvement in the postal votes application process, and create new offences and give stronger powers to authorised officers to deal with disruptive behaviour at electoral events. Authorised ECSA officers will be able to give directions to maintain order at an election. New penalties are $5000 for the new offences and failing to comply with directions.
Work is continuing on implementation of further reforms to modernise the Electoral Act ahead of the next state election.
This is in addition to our world-leading donations ban. Under the donation ban that took effect 1 July, it is now unlawful for a person to make, or to accept an electoral donation to a registered political party, member of Parliament, candidate or group of candidates.
To ensure fairness for those looking to enter the political system, certain new entrants and non-incumbents will be allowed to accept electoral donations subject to donation caps, including an individual donation limit of $5,000.
Significant penalties including fines of up to $50,000 or a term of 10 years imprisonment are available for any individual who seeks to deliberately circumvent the laws.
As put by Kyam Maher
This Government is committed to strengthening South Australia's democracy, and ensuring South Australians can have confidence in the electoral process.
Our world-leading ban on political donations was just the beginning of this robust suite of reforms aimed to protect and strengthen our democracy.
One thing that is becoming more apparent by the day is that we need to be on our guard to protect against misinformation online, and our laws banning the use of misleading deepfakes in political advertising is an important step in keeping up with this technology.
We know that South Australians are sick and tired of political robocalls, which are becoming all too frequent. Our reforms mean that political robocalls and robopolls are now banned for state elections.
