12 December 2017

New inquiry on Electoral Amendment Bill

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is inquiring into the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017.

Committee Chair Senator Linda Reynolds said transparency regarding political donations was necessary to ensure Australians had full confidence in the electoral system.

“Australia already has rules in place to ensure political parties disclose where they receive donations from, but the political landscape has changed since the last major amendments to the Electoral Act in 1984,” Senator Reynolds said.

“There are now a number of political actors that do not qualify as a political party and are therefore not covered under the existing legislation

“We must ensure the legislation stays up to date with these changes.”

Information about the Bill is available here.  A range of reforms are proposed in the Bill, including:

• A registration regime for third party campaigners who incur political expenditure and the establishment of such a register;
• Clarifying the definition of ‘associated entities’;
• Restrictions on foreign political donations; and
• Limiting public election funding to demonstrated electoral spending.The Committee welcomes submissions to this inquiry, which are due on Thursday 25 January 2018. For more information about the inquiry and how to lodge a submission visit https://www.aph.gov.au/efdr.The Committee has been asked to report by Friday 2 March 2018 and public hearings are being planned for early February 2018.

Enquiries:

Media Contact for Senator Reynolds: Amy Blom (08) 9477 5411, 0431 685 372 or amy.blom@aph.gov.au.

Secretariat: for background call (02) 6277 2374 or email em@aph.gov.au.