Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

A person contravenes this subsection if:

the person is the liable person for a member of a registered political party’s expenditure group; and

at a time in the Senate‑only election period for a Senate‑only election in a State or Territory, the member incurs particular electoral expenditure for the purposes of the election in the State or Territory; and

as at the time (and including the particular expenditure), total electoral expenditure incurred in the Senate‑only election period for the purposes of the election in the State or Territory, by members of the expenditure group, exceeds the Senate‑only election cap for the election in the State or Territory.

See Subdivision G for expenditure that does not count towards the cap, and for an exception for acceptable expenditure action. In addition, section 95 of the Regulatory Powers Act deals with mistake of fact.

For the meaning of Senate‑only election period, see section 302ALA.

This cap is separate from, and additional to, the Federal cap, the Divisional cap and the Senate cap that apply under sections 302AMA, 302AMB and 302AMC.

For the purposes of this section, the excess amount of the particular expenditure is:

unless paragraph (b) of this subsection applies—the amount of the particular expenditure; or

if, immediately before the particular expenditure was incurred, total electoral expenditure incurred as mentioned in paragraph (1)(c) was less than the Senate‑only election cap for the election in the State or Territory—so much of the particular expenditure as results in total expenditure exceeding that cap.

A person is liable to a civil penalty if the person contravenes subsection (1).

1,000 penalty units;

3 times the excess amount of the particular expenditure.