Current legislation

>$17,300 indexed annually

New legislation

>$5,000 indexed each January after a federal election

Donations made by the same donor to a recipient in the calendar year that are more than the disclosure threshold must be reported to the AEC in a donation disclosure notice

Current legislation

Financial year (1 July to 30 June)

New legislation

Calendar year (1 January to 31 December)

Current legislation

No expedited disclosure

New legislation

Donations above the disclosure threshold must be reported within specified timeframes:

• 7 days for donations made in an election period, i.e. between the issue of writ and polling day
• 24 hours for donations made in the expedited notice period, i.e. Saturday before election to 7 days after polling day
• by the 21st day of the next month for donations made outside an election period

The Electoral Act specifies other timeframes may apply in certain circumstances

Current legislation

Financial year annual returns:

• political parties, significant third parties, associated entities – 20 October
• Members of Parliament/Senators, third parties and donors – 17 November
• election return reporting after an election event

New legislation

• Change to calendar year reporting
• Annual returns due 8 weeks after year end
• Additional reporting requirements for electoral expenditure and administrative funding
• Election returns replaced by DDNs and annual candidate returns
• Donors do not need to lodge an annual return

Current legislation

• Annual: first working day of February
• Election: 24 weeks after polling

New legislation

The AEC will publish certain information contained in donation disclosure notices on the Transparency Register:

• within 24 hours in an election period
• within 10 days outside of an election period

Annual returns:

• within 10 weeks after year end

Current legislation

No gift caps

New legislation

• Gift caps apply per calendar year and are indexed annually
• All donors and recipients of gifts are limited by annual gift caps
• Donors are also subject to overall and State and Territory gift caps
• Overall gift cap limits donations to all recipients
• State and Territory gift caps limit donations to certain recipients
• Special caps apply for Senate-only and by-elections, and only in designated periods

Current legislation

No expenditure caps

New legislation

Expenditure caps limit the amount of electoral expenditure that can be incurred each calendar year

Examples of different electoral expenditure caps that apply are:

• Federal cap, comprising
  – annual divisional cap for each House of Representatives division 
  – annual Senate cap for each State or Territory
• Senate-only cap
• by-election cap

The value of the electoral expenditure cap is different for each person or entity type

Current legislation

Not provided 

New legislation

Administrative assistance funding provides new public funding to parliamentary parties, independent MPs and Senators

It is paid to a nominated account, which may be a federal administrative account but cannot be a federal account

Current legislation

• Paid to eligible political parties, candidates and Senate groups that receive at least 4 per cent of the total first preference votes in an election

New legislation

• Increase to the amount payable per eligible vote
• Advanced election funding paid ahead of a general election to registered political parties and candidates who were entitled to election funding in the previous federal election

Current legislation

Federal accounts are used by registered political parties, candidates, MPs, Senators, associated entities, significant third parties and third parties for amounts for a federal purpose

New legislation

All donations made for a federal purpose must be credited into a federal account. Entities can have more than one federal account, as long as they notify the AEC

Entities must use  a federal account for electoral expenditure