Yes. Acceptable recipient action is required by the recipient when the donation cap is exceeded.

If a donation had been disclosed but is returned for any reason, where the cap is not exceeded, an amendment to the disclosure notice is more appropriate.

Donation Caps

Yes. For a significant third party, the financial controller has the obligation to lodge the donation disclosure notice and an annual return.

Every significant third party, associated entity and nominated entity must nominate a financial controller. If the significant third party or associated entity is a person (as opposed to a business or other entity), they may nominate themselves as the financial controller.

If the significant third party or associated entity is not a person, an individual acting on its behalf must nominate the financial controller.

The AEC is considering if there is a possibility to provide for preliminary work to be undertaken by another representative prior to it being lodged by the financial controller. This will involve detailed consideration of role-based access through the IT system. The AEC will need to consider whether it is available from implementation or if it is a feature of future updates. However, any such system feature (if allowed) would not alter the financial controller’s disclosure obligations and liability under the Electoral Act.

Disclosure

The timeframe is based on calendar days.

Disclosure

The role of the AEC is to implement the legislation as passed by Parliament. Where the legislation requires a donation disclosure notice to be provided to the AEC, and even if the last day for doing so falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the notice must be lodged within the timeframes required by the applicable period (non-election period, election period or expedited notice period).

Disclosure

The AEC wants to make the process of making a donation disclosure notice as simple as possible. There is complexity in establishing a system that operates in that way, especially in relation to Commonwealth privacy laws. On initial implementation on 1 July 2026, the system may not necessarily do matching in the way that we intend it to in the future. It may be a system development in a later release.

Disclosure

Once the threshold has been exceeded, each donation, regardless of the amount, must be disclosed in line with the notice periods for the relevant election period in which the gift is made or received. Disclosure notices can be lodged individually or as part of a 'bulk upload'.

The AEC is still determining how the information will be presented on the Transparency Register.

Donors

This is an important part of the AEC’s system design, known as ‘identity and access management’. We will set up the new system to manage expedited disclosure and new returns obligations and acknowledge the importance this is not a single point of failure.

System

We are currently developing a CSV template and would be happy to share the draft with this group in future sessions.

System

The Minister can issue transitional rules that will set out how the disclosure scheme moves from current system to future system. Those rules have not yet been finalised. It is possible those transitional rules may set the first six months as operating as though it were a calendar year or in another way. The AEC will provide information regarding any transitional rules once the rules are issued.

Transition

The new legislation operates on a calendar year basis from 1 July 2026. This is a change from the financial year operation of the current scheme.

The AEC's role is to implement the legislation as enacted by Parliament. Should you wish to make a submission to JSCEM directly on these matters, this can be done at Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters – Parliament of Australia.

Legislation

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 provides a detailed definition of a federal account:
Federal account means an account where:

1. the only amounts deposited into the account are amounts to be used only for a federal purpose; and
2. the only amounts withdrawn or transferred from the account are amounts:
   1. withdrawn or transferred for a federal purpose; or
   2. transferred to another federal account; and
3. the account is with an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) within the meaning of the Banking Act 1959; and
4. the account is kept in Australia.

A federal account of a federal party may be established by the federal party or a state branch of the federal party.

The AEC will publish guidance explaining this in more user-friendly language.

The new legislation requires all electoral expenditure incurred by the various entities covered by the reform to be paid from a federal account.

If your entity has disclosure obligations you will need to consider the process you have for receiving donations so as to ensure that gifts you receive for a federal purpose will be credited to a federal account. Amounts that are not for a federal purpose must not be credited to a federal account. If this happens you have 6 weeks from the date you become aware to withdraw them.

Note: Federal purpose is the purpose of incurring electoral expenditure or creating or communicating electoral matter.

Federal accounts

The new scheme no longer uses the term “campaign” and “campaign account.”

Federal accounts

The Electoral Act refers to “federal purposes” and “elections.” Gifts for a federal purpose must go into a federal account and be recorded accordingly. You can carry funds across from one calendar year to the next, but money spent must also be recorded. The new legislation/future scheme is based on definitions. Rather than talking about a campaign, the legislation is interested in whether you have received gifts for a federal purpose. If it is a monetary gift, has it been made to a federal account?

If your entity has disclosure obligations, you need to consider your process for receiving those donations. This is essential to ensure gifts you receive for a federal purpose will be credited to a federal account.

Federal accounts

This is a complex question. We will be providing more detail to assist you on the FAD Reform webpage. Please check back soon at Funding and disclosure legislative changes - Australian Electoral Commission.

Federal accounts

The AEC would consider this as best practice. The recipient of donations would need to advise the donor which account the donation should be deposited to.

Federal accounts

The party or recipients.

Federal accounts

The overall gift cap regulates donors (it does not apply to recipients) and caps the total value of donations a donor can make to all recipients in a calendar year. This is $1.6 million (32 times the $50,000 amount). Whether it applies separately to each branch depends on how those branches are organised within the entity structure.

Donation caps

The AEC is developing an IT system to receive donor details; both individual and bulk uploads will be possible.

Donors

Donations (gifts) that are above $5,000 must be disclosed.

Donors

If an individual makes more than one donation to an entity in a calendar year and the total amount exceeds $5,000 (the disclosure threshold), those donations will need to be disclosed to the AEC. It is likely we will accept notification of amounts below the disclosure threshold to be recorded in the system.

Donors

It is a legislative requirement that both the donor and the recipient disclose a donation. The AEC will consider ways of displaying the donations that may aid in reducing any confusion. We are looking at how we properly match donations from donors and entities within compliance and system requirements. There are strong privacy protections within the Commonwealth legislation that apply to the AEC and other Commonwealth bodies. We need to be careful about how we match donations. Our system may not be capable of doing this on 1 July 2026, but we will be looking to adapt it for future releases as we expand the IT-enabled parts of the funding and disclosure system.

Donors

Both advance and post-election funding will be paid. Advance election funding will be paid ahead of a general election to parliamentary parties and candidates who were entitled to election funding in the previous federal election. It will likely be paid in instalments. The process will need to be settled through new regulations under the Electoral Act. These have not been finalised.

Funding

The legislation for the forthcoming scheme does not cap administrative expenditure.

Funding

Similar but with some changes – the AEC will provide further guidance on our website Funding and disclosure legislative changes - Australian Electoral Commission.

Funding

Advance election funding regulations are still being developed through the Department of Finance, so the timeframe is not yet known. Administrative election funding is paid before the end of the seventh day in the quarter (January, April, July and October).

Funding

The reforms include transitional rules to guide the shift from the current to the new scheme. For the first six months, the AEC’s focus will be on education rather than enforcement. Where there are unintentional breaches, the approach is that we will educate first. However, intentional breaches will still be subject to compliance action.

Transition

The reform legislation includes some transitional rules. They will address the way in which the legislation deals with moving from a financial year to a calendar year. Those rules will be put to Parliament before the scheme kicks off on 1 July 2026.

The transitional rules also include the ability to defer the commencement of the legislation by up to 12 months.

Transition

Yes, there are a limited number of issues or rules that will need to be established through the issuing of transitional rules and regulations under the Electoral Act. Transitional rules primarily deal with moving from financial year to calendar year reporting. Regulations primarily deal with the rules around advanced election funding, dates those payments can be requested and dates they will be paid.

Transition

From 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, the current financial year-based disclosure framework continues to apply. This means that any donations made for a federal purpose during this period are subject to the current disclosure threshold of $17,300 and the existing obligations under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Transition