23 March 2010

Parliament of New South Wales

Final Report: Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters

Public funding of Election Campaigns

Includes reccommendations and findings on;

Caps and bans on donations
Quarantined accounts
Other sources of income
Disclosure
Caps on expenditure.
Public funding
Compliance and enforcement.
Legislative and administrative reform
Local government

Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters
Terms of reference

The Committee is to consider the following:
(a) the criteria and thresholds that should apply for eligibility to receive public funding;
(b) the manner in which public funding should be calculated and allocated, including whether it should take into account first preference votes, parliamentary representation, party membership subscriptions, individual donations and/or other criteria;
(c) any caps that should apply, including whether there should be an overall cap on public funding and/or caps on funding of each individual party or candidate either absolutely or as a proportion of their total campaign expenditure or fundraising;
(d) the persons to whom the public funding should be paid, including whether it should be paid directly to candidates or to political parties;
(e) the mechanisms for paying public funding, including the timing of payments;
(f) whether any restrictions should be imposed on the expenditure of public funding and, if so, what restrictions should apply and how should the expenditure of public funding be monitored;
(g) whether any restrictions should be imposed on expenditure by political parties and candidates more generally and, if so, what restrictions should apply and how should expenditure be monitored;
(h) how public funding should apply as part of the broader scheme under which political donations are banned or capped;
(i) whether there should be any regulation of expenditure by third parties on political advertising or communication;
(j) whether there should be any additional regulation to ensure that government public information advertising is not used for partisan political purposes;
(k) any implications arising from the federal nature of Australia's system of government and its political parties, including in relation to intra-party transfers of funds from federal and other state/territory units of political parties;
(l) what provisions should be included in order to prevent avoidance and circumvention of any limits imposed by a public funding scheme;
(m) the compatibility of any proposed measures with the freedom of political communication that is implied under the Commonwealth Constitution;
(n) the impact of any proposed measures on the ability of new candidates, including independent candidates and new political groupings, to contest elections;
vi Parliament of New South Wales
(o) any relevant reports and recommendations previously made by the Select Committee on Electoral and Political Party Funding; and
(p) any other related matters.

For further information see here or attachment