23 March 2010
Parliament of New South Wales Final Report: Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters
Public funding of Election Campaigns
Includes recommendations 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.
Related Documents
For further information see here or attachment