2010-11 annual financial disclosure returns released today

1 February 2012

The 2010-11 annual financial disclosure returns from political parties, associated entities, donors and third parties who incur political expenditure are now available for public inspection.

The annual returns are available on the annual returns system on the AEC website. This website provides images of the original returns, some analysis and a data export function to enable users to undertake additional analysis of data.

The total figures disclosed in the 2010-11 annual returns are provided below in the high level summary tables together with a breakdown showing the total amounts disclosed by the major party groups.

High level summary of 2010-11 financial disclosure returns

Political Parties

Party Group	Receipts 2007-08 $	Receipts* 2009-10 $	Receipts* 2010-11 $	Payments 2007-08 $	Payments 2009-10 $	Payments 2010-11 $	Debts 2007-08 $	Debts 2009-10 $	Debts 2010-11 $
ALP	110,411,424	36,426,857	92,143,106	111,089,707	32,653,512	93,656,590	10,571,886	11,865,291	15,791,709
Liberal	73,465,056	41,271,196	98,625,785	74,543,088	35,789,271	108,047,135	11,664,220	11,822,109	15,471,399
Nationals	14,573,117	5,675,019	14,050,444	14,064,922	4,924,853	13,493,122	966,987	1,065,889	2,905,147
Greens	10,719,401	3,982,385	12,888,833	8,231,888	4,382,449	10,469,664	292,600	459,772	831,251
Family First	685,125	724,566	1,866,139	722,365	701,283	1,712,617	373,705	497,177	1,036,898
Others	5,093,699	3,874,677	11,389,128	5,086,599	3,433,992	9,436,325	1,050,277	1,077,350	1,237,076
Total	214,947,822	91,954,700	230,963,435	212,324,689	81,887,205	236,815,453	24,890,312	26,886,588	37,273,480

As at 31 January 2012 the AEC had received 67 political party returns with total receipts* of $230,963,435 disclosed by political parties for 2010-11. This compares to 62 political party returns with total receipts of $91,954,700 currently reported for the 2009-10 financial year.

Associated Entity Returns

Receipts 2007-08 $	Receipts* 2009-10 $	Receipts* 2010-11 $	Payments 2007-08 $	Payments 2009-10 $	Payments 2010-11 $	Debts 2007-08 $	Debts 2009-10 $	Debts 2010-11 $
718,414,871	703,529,804	776,344,849	676,743,966	687,591,972	770,560,060	112,013,006	110,331,636	127,102,567

Donor Returns

2007-08 $	2009-10 $	2010-11 $
26,460,606	12,829,710	25,089,179

Political Expenditure Returns

2007-08 $	2009-10 $	2010-11 $
51,447,226	27,944,362	39,453,243

Background information on financial disclosure

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 requires registered political parties and donors to registered political parties, associated entities and third parties who incur political expenditure to furnish financial disclosure returns to the AEC covering each financial year.

These returns are made public in February the following year.

Political parties must submit returns containing the following information:

• the total sum received during the financial year
• the total expenditure for the financial year
• the total debt outstanding at the end of the financial year
• the sum and source of all receipts over the threshold, and
• the sum and details of any debts as at the end of the financial year that exceed the threshold.

Associated entities must submit returns containing the following information:

• the total sum received during the financial year
• the total expenditure for the financial year
• the total debt outstanding at the end of the financial year
• the sum and source of all receipts that exceed the threshold
• the sum and details of any debts as at the end of the financial year that exceed the threshold, and
• the sum and details of the sources of any donations to political parties that exceed the threshold each financial year and are made from capital contributions.

Where the sum of a donor's contribution to a political party is more than the threshold, the donor must submit a return that details:

• the sum and details (date and recipient of the donation) of each ‘gift’, and
• the sum and details of any ‘gifts’ received by the donor that have been passed on to a political party or associated entity, or to another donor for the purposes of being passed on to a political party or associated entity.

Where a person has made political expenditure on the following activities the sum of which is in excess of the threshold, they must complete a return detailing expenditure in each of the activities, if any:

• public expression of views on a political party, candidate in an election, member of the Federal Parliament or an issue in a Federal election by any means
• printing, production, publication, distribution or broadcast of any material that is required by section 328 or 328A of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 or subclause 4(2) of schedule 2 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to include an authorisation, and
• carrying out opinion polling or other research relating to a Federal election or the voting intentions of electors.

Where a person is required to lodge a political expenditure return, and that person received a gift or gifts in excess of the threshold that went towards this expenditure, the person must disclose the sum of the gift, the source of the gift and the date on which the gift was made.

Candidates and Senate Groups not endorsed by a political party must disclose the total donations received and the sum and source of donations over the threshold, as well as expenditure in the categories above. Gifts received by candidates and Senate Groups that are endorsed by a political will be reported in the political party return for the 2010-11 financial year.

Media contact

Phil Diak | Director Media
AEC, Canberra
02 6271 4415
0413 452 539