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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (15 June) . . Page.. 1942 ..

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Proposed new clauses 25A and 25B.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Attorney-General) (10.08): I move that proposed new clauses 25A and 25B, as circulated in my name in amendment 2, be inserted in the bill [see schedule 4, part 1, at page 1981].

Proposed new clause 25A corrects a drafting error in section 217 relating to disclosure of gifts by candidates that currently requires details of amounts and dates of gifts below $200 to be declared, even though the identities of the donors of the gifts of less than $200 do not have to be disclosed. The amendment provides that details of amounts and dates of gifts below $200 do not have to be separately listed.

The new clause 25B corrects a drafting error in section 218 that relates to disclosure of gifts by non-party groups that currently requires details of amounts and dates of gifts below $200 to be declared, even though the identities of the donors of gifts of less than $200 do not have to be disclosed. The amendment provides that details of amounts and dates of gifts below $200 do not have to be separately listed.

Proposed new clauses 25A and 25B agreed to.

Clauses 26 to 28, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 29.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Attorney-General) (10.10): I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 4, part 1, at page 1981].

The amendments made by substituting new clauses 29, 29A and 29B are intended to amend the disclosure provisions to bring the ACT disclosure scheme into line with the Commonwealth scheme, as the two schemes are currently out of step.

Existing clause 29 in the bill is omitted and a series of new clauses substituted. One effect of this change is to retain existing sections 231A and 231C unchanged. Under the bill as it stands, these two sections will be omitted. These sections permit parties registered at the Commonwealth and ACT levels to fulfil their ACT obligations by giving the ACT Electoral Commissioner a copy of their Commonwealth returns and permit associated entities to do the same.

New clause 29 provides for annual returns by parties, ballot groups and MLAs. The substantive changes being made to section 230 by this amendment are to provide that parties, ballot groups and MLAs may submit an annual return as constituted by their audited annual accounts in a form approved by the Electoral Commissioner.

Details related to accounts paid by a party, ballot group or MLA to a person do not have to be disclosed. Annual returns submitted by parties, ballot groups and MLAs will not need to identify gifts that are not receipts or state the purpose for which the amount was received, and the changes contained in the bill delaying by four weeks the due dates for receipt of annual returns during an election year have been removed to

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