NSW Bill for Comprehensive Changes to Political Donations and Electoral Expenditure

Monday 21 May 2018 @ 12.19 p.m. | Legal Research

The NSW Government has introduced the Electoral Funding Bill 2018 (NSW) (‘the Bill’) on 17 May 2018. This Bill is for the purpose of making provisions related to the disclosure, capping and prohibition of political donations and for electoral expenditures during election campaigns.

Background

As noted in the Explanatory Memorandum for this Bill, the Bill is a response to the Final Report on Political Donations, which was released in December 2014, the Report on Inquiry into the Final Report of the Expert Panel – Political Donations and the Government’s Response, released in June 2016, and the Report on the Administration of the 2015 NSW Election and Related Matters released in November 2016 by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

Main Provisions

This Bill proposes to make various provisions related to the disclosure and capping of political donations to registered political parties, and also proposes to repeal the Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act 1981 (NSW).  Some of the key provisions are for the purpose of:

  • Setting out the key terms and definitions;
  • Requiring a disclosure of a reportable political donation;
  • Providing that independently elected members, candidates and groups of candidates are personal responsible for disclosing political donations and electoral expenditure rather than the official agent of those persons;
  • Providing for the disclosure of further information relating to political donations and electoral expenditure such as the terms and conditions an total loan repayments;
  • Providing that the Electoral Commission is to publish an explanation and analysis of the sources and amount of reportable political donations;
  • Providing for an increase on the cap on indirect campaign contributions to match the cap on other political donations;
  • Making provisions related to auditing requirements for registered political parties.

In his second reading speech, Anthony Roberts, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing, and Special Minister of State noted that the Bill would address the current scheme of party and official agents for the management of political donations, stating:

‘The bill introduces changes to the existing scheme of party and official agents for the disclosure and management of political donations. The changes are designed to address the expert panel and Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters' concerns about ensuring that candidates and elected members are responsible for compliance with the regime. The expert panel's view was that the current scheme of party and official agents should be abolished and that candidates and elected members should be directly responsible for compliance with the Act. However, the joint standing committee considered that it could be helpful to have one contact point within a party for compliance issues while agreeing that candidates and members should ultimately be responsible for compliance.’

He also stated:

‘The bill also requires enhanced disclosures to be made. Political parties will be required to identify electoral expenditure incurred substantially for the purposes of the election in a particular electoral district. This will improve transparency and ensure that compliance with the relevant caps on electorate-based expenditure can be monitored. The expert panel recommended that "associated entities" of political parties should have the same disclosure obligations as political parties. This is implemented by clause 12 (1). In addition, the bill makes clear that things done by a body that is controlled by a political party are deemed to be have been done by the political party. Political donations received or electoral expenditure incurred by associated entities controlled by a political party will be required to be disclosed by the party.’

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Sources:

Electoral Funding Bill 2018 (NSW) and second reading speech as published on TimeBase LawOne.

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