$17,300

Indexed on 1 July each year based on increases in the consumer price index

Above $5,000

Indexed each 1 January after a general election.

Financial year (July to June)

Calendar year (1 January to 31 December)

Expedited disclosure not required under current legislation. Annual returns only.

Donations for a federal purpose over the disclosure threshold must be reported in certain timeframes respective to the proximity to an election.

1. 7 days for donations during an election period (from the issue of writ to end of polling day), unless in the expedited period
2. 24 hours for donations during the expedited notice period (recipients; or 7 days for donors) (from the Saturday preceding polling day for an election to 7 days after polling day).
3. By the 21st day of the next month for donations outside of an election.

Financial year annual returns.

Registered political parties and their state and territory branches, significant third parties, and associated entities must lodge an annual return by 20 October each year.

MPs and senators who receive one or more gifts; and third parties that incur electoral expenditure above the disclosure threshold must lodge an annual return by 17 November each year.

Change to calendar year reporting.

Annual returns due 8 weeks after the end of the calendar year (final week of February).

There are new categories of information to be disclosed including gifts for a federal purpose and targeted electoral expenditure.

Election returns replaced by expedited disclosure and annual candidate returns.

Donors do not need to lodge annual returns.

Annual returns must be published the first working day in February each year for the previous related financial year [2023-24 returns were published on 3 February 2025].

Election returns must be published 24 weeks after polling day [FE25 returns due to be published on 20 October 2025].

Information from donation disclosure notices must be published on the Transparency Register

• within 24 hours of receiving it during an election period (from the issue of writ to 7 days after polling day).
• within 10 days of receiving it outside of an election period.

Information from annual returns must be published

• Within 10 weeks of the end of the calendar year.

No cap on donations under current legislation.

Gift caps apply per calendar year and electoral event 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

• Annual gifts (donations) caps made by a person/entity to a single recipient for a federal purpose in a calendar year is $50,000 (indexed each 1 January). 
• The overall donation cap is 32 times the annual cap. In a calendar year a person/entity can donate no more than $1.6 million to multiple recipients. 
• Specific caps apply for state/territory, and during a by-election or senate-only election.

No cap on expenditure under current legislation.

Electoral expenditure cap values determined by entity type.

A political party and members of its ‘expenditure group’ (state branches, endorsed candidates, endorsed parliamentarians, nominated entities and other entities that are part of the political party) are subject to a:

• Federal cap set at a total of $90 million,
• Divisional cap of $800,000, and
• Senate cap of $200,000 by the number of divisions in that state or territory.

Associated entities, significant third parties, and third parties are ‘capped expenditure entities’ and subject to a total expenditure cap of $11,250,000.

Independent members, Senators and candidates are also subject to caps.

Separate caps apply for by-elections and Senate-only elections.

Requirements for entities to register.

Entities must provide a previous year return within 30 days of being registered.

AEC can review the Transparency Register and deregister entities (such as STPs and AEs) that are not required to be registered.

Additional information is required in a new registration return.

New entity type is a nominated entity of a registered political party.

• Any exchanges between a registered political party and its nominated entity are not gifts.
• A party can only have one nominated entity, and a nominated entity can only be appointed to one party.
• All nominated entities must be registered as associated entities.

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.

Federal accounts must be used for all donations for a federal purpose, electoral expenditure and election funding.

Details of federal accounts must be provided when registering an entity or political party.

Entities can have more than one federal account, as long as they notify the AEC.

Not required under current legislation.

Introduction of federal administrative accounts which may be used for administrative expenditure. All amounts deposited or withdrawn from the account must be for a federal administrative purpose.

Administrative Assistance Funding may be paid into a federal administrative account. It must not be paid to a federal account.

Not provided for under current legislation.

Introduces a new system of administrative assistance funding for parliamentary parties and independent MPs and Senators.

Administrative assistance funding and administrative expenditure is subject to audit requirements and disclosed in an annual return.

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

Increase to amount payable per eligible vote.

Advanced Election Funding will be made available as prescribed in regulations (yet to be made) ahead of a general election to parliamentary parties and candidates that were entitled to election funding in the previous federal election.