Electoral Funding Act 2018

The State campaign account and the local government campaign account of a party are each to be separate accounts with an authorised deposit-taking institution denominated in Australian dollars.

The following may be paid into the State campaign account of a party—

political donations made to the party (including the proceeds of the investment or disposal of any political donation of property that is held as an asset of the account) other than political donations (or the proceeds of political donations) paid into a local government or federal campaign account,

political donations paid to a party agent of the party on behalf of an elected member, candidate or group,

contributions by candidates to finance the candidates’ own election campaigns,

payments made to the party under Part 4 (Public funding of State election campaigns) at any time,

money borrowed by the party at any time (other than money borrowed for a local government or federal election),

a bequest to the party,

money belonging to the party on 1 January 2011,

the proceeds of the investment or disposal of any other property belonging to the party on or before 1 January 2011,

the proceeds of an investment made, or disposal of property purchased, after 1 January 2011 from money or proceeds of the kind referred to in paragraphs (g) and (h),

any other money of a kind that is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

However, the following may not be paid into the State campaign account of a party—

a party subscription referred to in section 26, other than any amount that exceeds the maximum subscription referred to in that section and that constitutes a political donation to the party,

any amount of a political donation to the party that exceeds the applicable cap on political donations to the party, elected member, candidate or group under section 23,

any money paid to the party under Part 5 (Administrative and New Party policy development funding),

any other money of a kind that is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

The following may be paid into the local government campaign account of a party—

political donations made to the party that do not exceed the applicable cap on political donations to the party for a local government election (including the proceeds of the investment or disposal of any political donation of property for a local government election that is held as an asset of the account),

political donations paid to a party agent of the party on behalf of an elected member, candidate or group,

contributions by candidates to finance the candidates’ own election campaigns,

money borrowed by the party at any time for a local government election,

any other money of a kind that is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

However, the following may not be paid into the local government campaign account of a party—

a party subscription referred to in section 26,

any amount of a political donation to the party that exceeds the applicable cap on political donations to the party, elected member, candidate or group under section 23,

any other money of a kind that is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

This section does not prevent payments being made out of the State campaign account, or the local government campaign account, of a party that are in addition to the payments for electoral expenditure referred to in section 36.

For the avoidance of doubt, an amount of a political donation to a party, elected member, candidate or group that exceeds the applicable cap on political donations under section 23 may be paid into a campaign account of the party despite subsections (3)(b) and (5)(b) if that part of the donation that exceeds the applicable cap is immediately then paid out of the campaign account and paid into an account kept exclusively for the purposes of federal election campaigns.

If political donations are required to be paid to a party agent on behalf of an elected member, group or candidate and paid into a campaign account of the party, the funds of (and relevant transactions relating to) each member, group or candidate are to be accounted for separately.

Any amount standing to the account of an elected member, group or candidate that remains in a campaign account after the elected member, group or candidate ceases to be an elected member, group or candidate becomes the property of the party.

The regulations may make provision for or with respect to campaign accounts (including the control of accounts, separately accounting for amounts held for elected members, groups and candidates and the provision of information to and the audit of accounts by the Electoral Commission).