Election volunteers are calling for reforms to make polls safer for candidates and voters, warning harassment and intimidation is rife on the hustings.
Volunteers who worked on a political campaign in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, where independent Monique Ryan narrowly held off a challenge by the Liberals, said pre-polling became unsafe due to unsuitable venues, aggressive signage and overcrowding.
The volunteers, of an unspecified candidate due to redactions, also detailed standover tactics and physical and verbal attacks in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the 2025 federal election.
"We are concerned that the 2025 election crossed a line from peaceful disagreement to dangerous polarisation," the submission said.
"Candidates, their volunteers and even voters were mocked, harassed, insulted, threatened, abused and subjected to a range of anti-social behaviours.
"More importantly, for voters, we fear that Australia's elections may have crossed a line from friendly competition to targeted and aggressive behaviour, relentless attacks and a sea of misinformation."
It singled out the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and called for an inquiry into their conduct.
Volunteers from the church, who do not believe in voting, showed up in droves to support Liberal candidates in the lead-up to the May election.
The secretive sect and the coalition denied any arrangement between the groups.
The submission called for more transparency around third-party campaigners after describing the church's actions as "a co-ordinated effort of almost military proportions".
"We have serious concerns about the activities and influence of religious organisations during the 2025 election, and more broadly in our proudly secular democracy," the submission said.
"The distinction between partisan campaigning and advocacy and non-partisan campaigning and advocacy by a charity was clearly blurred during the 2025 election!"
The Kooyong volunteers' submission also claimed people were intimidated by "angry, aggressive men in trucks", and another worker was called a "slag" and "communist spy" among other sexual and demeaning slurs in a vitriolic attack.
The parliamentary inquiry also heard evidence from the son of independent candidate Zoe Daniel, who lost her Melbourne seat of Goldstein to the Liberals.
He detailed death threats, stalking and doxxing - where private information is posted publicly with the aim of threatening or intimidating a person - against his mother and their family.
He read aloud one email laden with rape and death threats including: "I know where you live and when you go outside I will wait for you, I will destroy your ugly face with a knife."
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