Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

A person contravenes this subsection if:

at a time in the by‑election period for a by‑election for a Division, the person:

is an Independent House candidate or member for the Division; and

incurs particular electoral expenditure for the purposes of the by‑election; and

as at the time (and including the particular expenditure), total electoral expenditure incurred in the by‑election period for the purposes of the by‑election by the person, while the person is an Independent House candidate or member for the Division, exceeds the Independent House of Representatives by‑election cap for the by‑election.

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 by‑election period, see section 302ALA.

This cap is separate from, and additional to, the Independent House of Representatives cap that applies under section 302ANA.

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)(b) was less than the Independent House of Representatives by‑election cap for the by‑election—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.