Off the slot and into the street

Handing them out on a footpath

On public property, a permit is the usual route. Handing out brochures, flyers or promotional materials on public property usually requires a permit from the state or territory government, and where bill posters are not given designated locations, a permit is what posting requires (business.gov.au). Some cities run the permit themselves: in the City of Adelaide, the Council's on-street activity permit is open to anyone, and it covers handing out free samples and running business promotions (City of Adelaide).

What that Adelaide permit allows is set out on the Council's own page. Where the promotion hands flyers or free samples out, the limits are two people at a time, three hours at most, and only a minimal amount of infrastructure; an activation that uses more infrastructure can be given a longer approval, assessed case by case (City of Adelaide).

Spruiking is regulated separately from the sheet: promoting products or services to passers-by, for example with a microphone, is regulated by the state and territory governments, and may need a permit (business.gov.au).

Adelaide does not print one fixed fee: Adelaide's route is a permit fee calculator, to estimate the fees before applying, on the basis that one person counts as two square metres (City of Adelaide).

Near a polling place

Two of the states this guide covers set a distance for election material. In Victoria, on election day, registered how-to-vote cards are the only material that can be handed out within 400 metres of voting centres, and a card must be registered with the Commission to be handed out within that distance. Handing a card out more than 400 metres from a voting centre on election day, at an early voting centre, at a low sensory voting centre, or publishing it online does not need registration, but the card must still be properly authorised (Victorian Electoral Commission).

In New South Wales, during early voting and on election day, voters must not be approached, and posters must not be displayed, within a voting centre or within six metres of its entrance (NSW Electoral Commission).

Cars, fences and fixed structures

In Queensland, handing a sheet out is one thing and leaving it on something is another. A person must not place any document in or on a motor vehicle without the express consent of a registered operator, owner or driver of the vehicle, and must not attach any document to a building or other fixed structure without the express consent of its owner or occupier, or of a person acting for them, and it does not matter whether the document is advertising material (s 109(1) to (3)). The exceptions are the lawful performance of a function under an Act, and action that is reasonable in the circumstances, such as a note left with contact details after accidental damage to a vehicle (s 109(4)).

Why this guide is short

This guide is short because its subject is permits and distances, and a permit belongs to a place: it comes from a council or a state body, on its own form, for its own area. What can be set down generally is what this page carries: the permit route for handing material out on public property, the two distances around polling places, and Queensland's rules for documents left on vehicles and fixed structures. The street rules of the other states, and their rules for a sheet dropped on the ground, are not in this guide.