Page 2450 - Week 06 - Thursday, 10 May 2012
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.16): This amendment is not supported by the government as it introduces an earlier commencement date for the cap on gifts after the amending act is notified. If this amendment succeeds, bringing the application of this section forward today on notification, and if the following amendment regarding the federal election account does not succeed, there will be a resulting inconsistency.
The government’s proposed 205G relies on the concept of an ACT election account, which does not become a legislative requirement until 1 July this year. Given that there is very little time left until that date, and anyone wanting to make significant donations has had plenty of opportunity to do so, knowing this bill has been scheduled for debate, it is unlikely that moving the date forward to the date of notification will have much practical effect. Therefore, to avoid any legal inconsistencies resulting from the different start dates of interrelated clauses, the government does not support the amendment.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.17): The Canberra Liberals will not be supporting this amendment either. It does create a staggered approach, which was something that Ms Hunter and I discussed earlier in the piece when it looked like this bill would have been completed in about February. We also discussed a staggered approach to the introduction of a wide range of provisions. That has been abandoned, except for this provision. We are now so close to the effective commencement date of 1 July that I think this will have no effect. Also the combination with the other amendments which come after this and which the Canberra Liberals will not be supporting will create real problems. So we will not be supporting this.
Amendment negatived.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.19): I move amendment No 11 on the white paper circulated in my name [see schedule 4 at page 2470].
This amendment inserts a new section into the electoral bill, section 205G(2A), for the purpose of including gifts in kind in the amounts included in the cap on donations received. Under the current electoral bill only amounts of cash deposited in an ACT election account are included in the calculation used to determine whether a person has exceeded the $10,000 cap on donations in a financial year. As gifts in kind are not included in section 205G, donors could avoid the cap on donations by making donations of gifts in kind rather than cash. For example, a donor could directly pay for the printing of electoral material for a party or candidate. Amendment 11 will enable gifts in kind that are used for electoral expenditure to be included in the calculation used to determine whether the cap on donations has been exceeded.
Amendment agreed to.
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