Democracy ‘under assault’ from significant third parties at 2025 federal election, parliamentary inquiry finds

New laws are needed to police behaviour at polling booths after Australia’s democracy came “under assault” at last year’s federal election – including from third parties such as Plymouth Brethren Christian Church members and right-wing lobby group Advance – the chair of a parliamentary inquiry has said.

The proposed new code of conduct for campaigners was among several recommendations in the interim report from the Labor-led committee reviewing the 2025 ballot, which was tabled on Tuesday afternoon.

The Coalition has dismissed the findings, accusing the Labor of turning the election inquiry into a “hyper-partisan witch hunt” against members of the church.

“The way that they have been treated by Labor for exercising their right to participate in our political process is a stain on our democracy,” the Liberal senator, Jess Collins, said.

The joint standing committee on electoral matters received dozens of reports about the conduct of members of Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, who turned out en-masse in support of Liberal candidates in marginal seats across the country.

The church has acknowledged some of its members were involved in the campaign but denied it was organised by the church.

In a speech to parliament, the committee’s chair, Jerome Laxale, said what occurred at the federal election “felt like an assault on our democracy, especially in targeted seats”.

“Many described this assault by third parties, identified in submissions like the Plymouth Brethren and Advance, as a fundamental disruption to the foundations of our free and fair voting process,” the Labor MP said.

“This parliament cannot ignore this evidence. In an electoral system where it is compulsory for adults to participate, every effort must be made to ensure that the electoral process is safe, fair and inviting for all involved.”

The committee’s report did not name the groups but said a “significant proportion” of reports of antisocial behaviour at polling places were linked to “third parties”.

The interim report made 14 recommendations, including calling for a review of the threshold for entities to be considered significant third parties, and therefore subject to regulation, under federal electoral laws.

It proposed creating a mandatory code of conduct that would apply to all participants at polling places. The code would be enforced in designated “campaign zones” surrounding booths, where the number of campaigners and signage would be restricted.

“These recommendations respond directly to the many accounts of overwhelming, unsafe and intimidatory experiences at polling places during the 2025 federal election in targeted electorates,” Laxale said.

The interim report also called for a wider review of electoral laws to protect the voting process from “domestic interference”.

“In the face of evidence received to date, a strong argument can be made that any behaviour designed to dissuade participation in the electoral process, could be considered domestic interference,” he said.

The committee last week announced it would seek to compel witnesses from Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and Advance to attend public hearings in a step it described as “extraordinary” but “necessary”.

The church’s director, Lloyd Grimshaw, has written to the committee to advise that he was prepared to give evidence in order to “state the facts”.

A spokesperson for the church said in a statement late on Tuesday that it wanted to appear before the committee to “confirm directly and plainly that the church did not support, coordinate or otherwise participate in the 2025 election”.

The spokesperson said the church wrote to the committee again on Tuesday morning offering to give evidence – the fifth time it had done so.

“It is for the committee chair (Laxale) to talk to his remarks to parliament,” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Advance told Guardian Australia: “Jerome Laxale is a sook who is currently conducting a witchhunt into anyone who disagrees with him”.

“We won’t be listening to his lectures about who is and isn’t allowed to participate in elections in this country,” the spokesperson said.

In a speech to parliament responding to the interim report, the Liberal MP, Ben Small, described the inquiry as a “one-eyed hyper-partisan witch hunt of a group of religious Australians”.

Guardian Australia has been told the Liberal senator, Jess Collins, spoke up in defence of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church at the Coalition’s closed-door party room meeting on Tuesday morning.

Collins would not discuss the remarks to the party room but in a statement to Guardian Australia accused Labor of using the parliament to “persecute a religious group for campaigning against them”.

The inquiry will now shift its focus to its other terms of reference, including the prospect of fixed four-year terms and increasing the number of MPs in parliament, before tabling its final report in November.