Electoral Commission warns of ‘intolerable risk’ of interference, cyberattack at NSW election

The NSW Electoral Commission has warned the Minns government’s refusal to fund an overhaul of its antiquated IT systems has led to “an intolerable level of risk of election failure” at future polls, including the upcoming state election in March.

NSW Electoral Commissioner Rachel McCallum has warned a parliamentary committee overseeing the agency’s budget a multimillion-dollar funding shortfall has created “extreme risks” to its ability to run elections, saying the election in March could be vulnerable to cyberattack, external interference and challenges to its validity.

In remarkably frank correspondence, McCallum has cautioned the government’s refusal to fund a replacement for the commission’s IT system over a series of budgets has placed future elections at risk. At the same time, its denial of a request to roll over some of the agency’s funding from the previous budget to pay for the 2027 election had caused “unnecessary financial risks … at a critical time”.

The stark warning, contained in correspondence sent to the committee, is a significant intervention from the independent election watchdog less than six months out from the next poll. The commission has long urged governments of both persuasions to increase its funding. As far back as 2019, it warned that it faced a “critical degree of urgency” over funding as its remit expanded.

However, that burden has only increased, and McCallum’s letter is startlingly urgent in its tone. In a separate statement to the Herald, a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said its budget for the 2027 election “continued to be stretched”.

The spokeswoman also noted recent concerns about AI agents accessing Australian public sector websites, pointing out it had prompted the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs to direct federal agencies to take “urgent action be taken in relation to legacy systems”.

“To support the independent administration of the March 2027 election, the Electoral Commission is working with NSW Treasury to secure approval to access additional funding now from the NSW government,” she said.

According to the commissioner’s correspondence, sent in August but previously unreported, there was now “an intolerable level of risk of election failure or challenges to the validity of results, including potentially for the upcoming 2027 State election”.

The commission’s election delivery system, the letter to the committee warned, was now more than 15 years old and had become “antiquated”. The systems were “increasingly fragile and unreliable” with “frequent application failures”.

“The platforms are no longer able to fully support key operational processes and will become more vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and other external interference,” the correspondence states.

“As the external technology and cybersecurity environment continues to evolve, the Electoral Commission’s vulnerability increases.”

The increased likelihood the commission would be unable to deliver “part or all” of the election could lead to the Court of Disputed Returns declaring the vote void.

“If this occurred, the Electoral Commission would be required to run new elections in any district that was impacted, or the whole state in the case of a failure in the Legislative Council election,” it warns.

“If the problem was widespread, caretaker government arrangements may need to continue for as long as it took to hold new elections.”

It comes after the government denied a funding request from the commission in its last budget for $149 million over 10 years to fund an update of its election systems. McCallum labelled the bid a “streamlined” request after previous budget bids were turned down by the Minns government.

It would have allowed it to “plan for and commit expenditure to replace legacy systems that continue to present extreme risks to near future successful major election delivery and regulation”, the commissioner said.

“The proposal was a well-considered and reasonable one that presented a streamlined alternative approach … acknowledging both the constraints of the current financial management environment but also the criticality of investing now to protect near-future major elections.”

However, a spokesman for Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the commission’s budget had increased by 34 per cent since the 2022-23 financial year, $84.6 million more than at the last election, and noted that the government had agreed in the last budget to 11 of the 14 funding requests made.

Despite McCallum’s warning about the potential vulnerability of the March election, the Treasurer’s spokesman said the commission had told the government its 10-year IT systems upgrade “would have no significant effect on the 2027-28 election process”.

However, the commission has pushed back on the government’s insistence that its budget has increased. In her letter, McCallum said, given increasing costs, the difference “should not be seen as a significant additional investment in reducing the risks for, and increasing the integrity of, NSW elections and lobbying regulation”.

The commission has also asked that $7.7 million from its previous budget be rolled into the current budget. The government only approved $5.7 million.

Opposition minister Chris Rath, who sat on the committee which reviewed the commission’s budget, accused Labor of “penny-pinching over our democratic processes”.

“There are few proposals more worthy of funding than safeguarding the integrity of our elections,” he said. “This is nothing less than a broken promise from a government that campaigned for the adequate and independent funding of our integrity agencies.

“This isn’t even the first time Labor has rejected the NSW Electoral Commission’s funding proposal. But it is completely reckless to be this stingy so close to the election when funds are needed most.”

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