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Australian Electoral Commission
Current legislation |
$17,300 Indexed on 1 July each year based on increases in the consumer price index |
From commencement of new legislation |
Above $5,000 Indexed each 1 January after a general election. |
Current legislation |
Financial year (July to June) |
From commencement of new legislation |
Calendar year (1 January to 31 December) |
Current legislation |
Expedited disclosure not required under current legislation. Annual returns only. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Donations for a federal purpose over the disclosure threshold must be reported in certain timeframes respective to the proximity to an election.
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Current legislation |
Financial year annual returns. Registered political parties and their state and territory branches, significant third parties, and associated entities must lodge an annual return by 20 October each year. MPs and senators who receive one or more gifts; and third parties that incur electoral expenditure above the disclosure threshold must lodge an annual return by 17 November each year. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Change to calendar year reporting. Annual returns due 8 weeks after the end of the calendar year (final week of February). There are new categories of information to be disclosed including gifts for a federal purpose and targeted electoral expenditure. Election returns replaced by expedited disclosure and annual candidate returns. Donors do not need to lodge annual returns. |
Current legislation |
Annual returns must be published the first working day in February each year for the previous related financial year [2023-24 returns were published on 3 February 2025]. Election returns must be published 24 weeks after polling day [FE25 returns due to be published on 20 October 2025]. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Information from donation disclosure notices must be published on the Transparency Register
Information from annual returns must be published
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Current legislation |
No cap on donations under current legislation. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Gift caps apply per calendar year and electoral event and are indexed annually. All donors and recipients of gifts are limited by annual gift caps. Donors are also subject to overall and state and territory gift caps
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Current legislation |
No cap on expenditure under current legislation. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Electoral expenditure cap values determined by entity type. A political party and members of its ‘expenditure group’ (state branches, endorsed candidates, endorsed parliamentarians, nominated entities and other entities that are part of the political party) are subject to a:
Associated entities, significant third parties, and third parties are ‘capped expenditure entities’ and subject to a total expenditure cap of $11,250,000. Independent members, Senators and candidates are also subject to caps. Separate caps apply for by-elections and Senate-only elections. |
Current legislation |
Requirements for entities to register. Entities must provide a previous year return within 30 days of being registered. |
From commencement of new legislation |
AEC can review the Transparency Register and deregister entities (such as STPs and AEs) that are not required to be registered. Additional information is required in a new registration return. New entity type is a nominated entity of a registered political party.
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Current legislation |
Federal accounts are used by registered political parties, candidates, MPs, Senators, associated entities, significant third parties and third parties for amounts for a federal purpose. |
From commencement of new legislation |
Federal accounts must be used for all donations for a federal purpose, electoral expenditure and election funding. Details of federal accounts must be provided when registering an entity or political party. Entities can have more than one federal account, as long as they notify the AEC. |
Current legislation |
Not required under current legislation. |
New legislation |
Introduction of federal administrative accounts which may be used for administrative expenditure. All amounts deposited or withdrawn from the account must be for a federal administrative purpose. Administrative Assistance Funding may be paid into a federal administrative account. It must not be paid to a federal account. |
Current legislation |
Not provided for under current legislation. |
New legislation |
Introduces a new system of administrative assistance funding for parliamentary parties and independent MPs and Senators. Administrative assistance funding and administrative expenditure is subject to audit requirements and disclosed in an annual return. |
Current legislation |
Paid to eligible political parties, candidates, and Senate groups that receive at least four per cent of the total first preference votes in an election. |
New legislation |
Increase to amount payable per eligible vote. Advanced Election Funding will be made available as prescribed in regulations (yet to be made) ahead of a general election to parliamentary parties and candidates that were entitled to election funding in the previous federal election. |
Definition of gift (donation) has new inclusions and exclusions.
Changes to when a person becomes and ceases to be a candidate.
Associated entity must only operate wholly, or to a significant extent, for the benefit of one or more registered political parties.
Third Party is a person or entity if they incur electoral expenditure over the ‘third party threshold’ ($20,000) in a calendar year.
Administrative expenditure is now separately defined from electoral expenditure [noting electoral expenditure is any expenditure incurred by a relevant entity in relation to an election or for the dominant purpose of creating or communicating electoral matter].
A peak representative body is an entity that satisfies a number of conditions, represents the shared interests of other organisations, and may also be a significant third party, an associated entity or a third party.
The AEC acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.