Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

Acceptable expenditure action is taken in relation to an amount of electoral expenditure if:

the expenditure of the amount is cancelled or reversed; or

the recipient of the amount repays an equivalent amount to the person or entity that incurred the particular expenditure; or

in relation to a cap mentioned in Subdivision C—the member of the expenditure group that incurred the expenditure, or another member of that group, transfers an equivalent amount to the Commonwealth for the purposes of this Division; or

in relation to a cap mentioned in Subdivision D, E or F—the person or entity that incurred the expenditure transfers an equivalent amount to the Commonwealth for the purposes of this Division.

Nothing in this Division prevents the taking of acceptable expenditure action in relation to an amount that is not an excess amount (within the meaning of a civil penalty provision in Subdivision C, D, E or F).

However, for the purposes of such a civil penalty provision, the taking of acceptable expenditure action in relation to an amount, after a time at which the total electoral expenditure concerned has exceeded the cap concerned, does not reduce the total amount of expenditure incurred.

This means that once a cap is exceeded, there is no way to subsequently reduce total expenditure to an amount that is below the cap (even if, by taking acceptable expenditure action, a penalty is avoided).