Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

The financial controller of a person or entity that is a significant third party at any time during a calendar year must provide the Electoral Commission a return for the calendar year in accordance with this section.

See section 310G for additional disclosure obligations for persons or entities that become registered as a significant third party in a calendar year.

A return must be provided even if no amounts were received, paid or incurred (see section 309).

120 penalty units;

if an amount is not disclosed in accordance with subsection (1) and there is sufficient evidence for the court to determine the amount, or an estimate of the amount, not disclosed—3 times that amount.

The return must:

be provided to the Electoral Commission within 8 weeks of the end of the calendar year; and

be in the approved form.

The return must set out the following information:

the total amount received by or on behalf of the person or entity during the calendar year, together with the details (if any) required by section 310J;

the total amount of gifts made for a federal purpose that were received by the person or entity during the calendar year, together with the details required by section 310K;

the total amount paid by or on behalf of the person or entity during the calendar year;

the total electoral expenditure incurred by the person or entity during the calendar year, together with the details required by section 310M;

the total outstanding amount, as at the end of the calendar year, of all debts incurred by or on behalf of the person or entity, together with the details (if any) required by section 310N;

details of any discretionary benefits received by or on behalf of the person or entity from the Commonwealth during the calendar year.

For the meaning of federal purpose, see subsection 287(1).

See Division 4 (disclosure of donations) for additional disclosure obligations in relation to certain gifts.

The return must set out details of any federal administrative accounts kept in relation to the person or entity at any time in the calendar year.

The financial controller of a person or entity that is taken to have incurred an amount of electoral expenditure in a calendar year (the later calendar year) under section 287J must provide:

a return for the calendar year in which the expenditure was actually incurred that includes that expenditure; and

a separate return for the later calendar year that does not include the expenditure that was taken under section 287J to have been incurred in the later calendar year.

If a significant third party is deregistered before the end of the period for providing the return as mentioned in paragraph (2)(a), subsection (1) applies to the person who was the financial controller of the significant third party immediately before that deregistration.

Any return provided under this section in respect of a person who is an individual is not required to include the following:

any amounts, or the details of any discretionary benefits, received by, or on behalf of, the person in a purely personal capacity;

any amounts paid by, or on behalf of, the person for personal purposes and not solely or substantially for a purpose related to an election;

the amount, or other details, of any debt incurred by, or on behalf of, the person in a purely personal capacity.

This section does not apply in relation to an amount if:

the amount was received by, or on behalf of, a person or entity that was registered under the Australian Charities and Not‑for‑profits Commission Act 2012; and

no part of the amount was used during the calendar year by the person or entity:

to enable the person or entity to incur electoral expenditure, or create or communicate electoral matter; or

to reimburse the person or entity for incurring electoral expenditure, or creating or communicating electoral matter.

This section does not apply to the financial controller of an entity for a calendar year if:

the financial controller is required to provide a return under section 310D (associated entity returns) or section 310E (nominated entity returns) with respect to the entity for the year; and

the return the financial controller provides under that section:

states that the entity was also a significant third party in the year; and

sets out the information required by this section with respect to the entity for the year.

An entity that is registered as both a significant third party and an associated entity at a time is, for the purposes of this Part, to be treated at that time as if it were only an associated entity: see subsection 287(8A).

Subsection 93(2) of the Regulatory Powers Act does not apply in relation to a contravention of subsection (1) of this section.