Seniors United Party becomes first post-election casualty, deregistered by the AEC after 7 years

The party is the first to lose registration since Australians headed to the polls on May 21.

The Seniors United Party of Australia has become the first to be deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission, following the May 21 federal election where they did not win any seats.

The party was set up in 2015 as Seniors United NSW, before changing its name to Seniors United Party ahead of the 2016 federal election.

This year, they picked up 0.09% of the national senate vote (they did not run in the lower house) but only ran in NSW, where their total was 0.27 percent.

Dessie Kocher & Ray Bennie were Seniors United candidates, with their vote putting them ahead of Federal ICAC Now, Australian Values Party, TNL, Group F (Socialist Equality Party), Socialist Alliance & ungrouped candidates Danny Lim, Julie Collins, Warren Grzic, Guitang Lu and William Lang.

The AEC says the reason Seniors United was deregistered was because "where a notice is given under s 137(1) in relation to a political party and a statement is not lodged under s 137(2) in response to that notice, the Electoral Commission shall deregister the party."

In simpler terms, they failed to respond to an AEC notice.

It's not the first time something like this has happened to the party - they AEC considered deregistering the party in 2018, and were actually deregistered in 2021 before a successful appeal saw them reregistered later that year.

The party also merged with the Pensioners, Veterans and Seniors Party in 2018.

Seniors United does have a member of parliament in Australia, with Fred Nile (formerly with the Christian Democrats) as its sole MP in NSW, after joining the party in May.

However, they are not yet registered with the NSW Electoral Commission - Animal Justice, Labor, Flux, Informed Medical Options, Legalise Cannabis NSW, Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, The Nationals, One Nation, Reason, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Socialist Alliance, Sustainable Australia, The Greens, The Open Party & The Small Business Party, however, are.

It comes as Voices for the Senate becomes the first party registered by the AEC since the election.

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