Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Electoral Act 2002 - SECT 86

Authors to be identified

86. Authors to be identified



(1) A person must not during the relevant period-

   (a)  print, publish or distribute; or

   (b)  cause, permit or authorise to be printed, published or distributed-

a newspaper, circular or pamphlet containing an article, report, letter or
other matter containing electoral matter unless the author's name and address
are set out at the end of the article, report, letter or other matter, or if
only part of the article, report, letter or matter appears in any issue of a
newspaper, circular or pamphlet at the end of that part. Penalty: In the case
of a natural person, 5 penalty units; In the case of a body corporate, 25
penalty units.

(2) This section does not apply to the publication in a newspaper of-

   (a)  a leading article; or

   (b)  an article that consists solely of a report of a meeting and does not
        contain electoral matter, other than comment made by a speaker at the
        meeting.

(3) It is sufficient compliance with subsection (1) if a newspaper containing
a letter containing electoral matter sets out the author's name and the suburb
or locality in which the author's address is located.

_______________