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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3635 ..

An associated entity is defined in the Bill as an organisation controlled by one or more registered political parties or by an Independent MLA, which operates wholly, or mainly, for the benefit of one or more registered political parties or an Independent MLA. This is aimed at preventing political parties avoiding the disclosure laws by setting up organisations through which donations can be channelled without disclosure of their true source. Associated entities will be required to lodge annual returns of expenditure and receipts.

At present, persons who donate more than $1500 to parties and Independent MLAs are required to submit disclosure returns after each election. Under the Bill, these people will be required to submit annual returns. This will enable more efficient auditing of the disclosure process by requiring donors and recipients of donations to submit returns covering the same periods.

The Bill will also change the reporting requirements relating to each election. Currently, candidates and non-party groups are required to submit election returns showing particular types of electoral expenditure. Political parties are not required to submit equivalent election returns showing specified electoral expenditure. To date, parties have only been required to show total amounts of expenditure in their annual returns. Under the Bill, parties will be required to submit election returns similar to those required of candidates.

The Bill also follows the Commonwealth's lead by providing that election funding payments to parties, non-party groups and candidates will be paid automatically where the 2% threshold of first preference votes is reached. In the past, parties, non-party groups and candidates have had to demonstrate they had incurred electoral expenditure in order to receive their public funding entitlements. This change will reduce the administrative burden on parties, groups, candidates and the Electoral Commission. As most parties, groups and candidates qualifying for funding normally spend more than their entitlement during an election it is unlikely this change will lead to a substantial increase in funding pay-outs. On the other hand, this change will reduce the Electoral Commission's cost of administering the funding scheme.

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