No. Political entities are not required to quarantine expenditure for ACT elections within a defined ACT election bank account. However, under some circumstances it may be desirable for a political party or associated entity to maintain a separate federal election account.

If a political party with registration at both the Territory and federal levels (dual registration) or its associated entity wishes to quarantine gifts from ACT disclosure law, a federal election account will be required.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was amended in 2020 with legislation that had the effect of limiting the operation of the ACT’s funding and disclosure scheme, as legislated by the ACT Legislative Assembly. The effect of the Commonwealth Electoral Act amendments mean that, for a gift or gifts that have been provided to an ACT registered political party that has dual registration, and that have been deposited into a specifically designated federal election account by the political party, the party is not required under Territory law to disclose the gift particulars to the ACT Electoral Commission. Similarly, it also means that for a gift or gifts that have been deposited into a federal account by an associated entity of an ACT registered political party with dual registration, the associated entity is not required under Territory law to disclose the gift particulars to the ACT Electoral Commission.

It is vital that great care is taken in the administration of funds within a political entities’ federal election account. Any movement of funds out of a federal election account for non-federal purposes, or movement into a territory account, will breach the quarantine provisions provided by the Commonwealth Electoral Act and expose the entire account to Territory law. This may include a breach of ACT law for any funds in the account that have not been disclosed to Elections ACT within the disclosure period, or any funds that were provided by a prohibited donor.

See below “Are there any restrictions on the use of funds by political entities?” for more information.

Yes.  Restrictions apply in relation to administrative funding payments given to parties and non-party MLAs by the ACT Electoral Commission and in relation to payments received by ACT registered political parties from related parties.  There is also a cap on electoral expenditure during the capped expenditure period, which commences on 1 January in an election year and concludes at the end of polling day for the election.

Additionally, any gifts made to a political party or associated entity that have been deposited into a federal election account (See: above FAQ question) must not be used for ACT electoral purposes.

If any federally allocated funds are used for an ACT electoral purpose or transferred out of the federal account for a purpose other than federal election purposes, Commonwealth electoral law ceases to cover all gifts held within the federal election account and full, ACT disclosure laws come into effect with respect to those gifts.

If gifts received from prohibited donors under ACT law have been deposited into a federal election account and the political party uses any gifts held in that account, whether from a prohibited donor or any other donor, for a purpose other than a federal election purpose, those prohibited donor gifts cease to be covered by Commonwealth electoral law and penalties under ACT law may apply to both the political entity and the giver of the gift.

See the following questions for more detail.

Political parties with elected MLAs and non-party MLAs are entitled to receive quarterly administrative funding payments from the ACT Electoral Commission. These payments are intended to help parties and non-party MLAs meet the administrative cost of running their offices and complying with the disclosure requirements of the ACT’s Electoral Act 1992 .

These administrative funding payments cannot be used for electoral expenditure in relation to an ACT, federal, state or local government election.

If a party does spend administrative funding on an ACT, federal, state or local government election, an amount equal to twice the amount used will be payable as a penalty to the Territory.

While administrative funding payments do not have to be deposited in a designated account, recipients of funding need to be able to demonstrate administrative funding payments have not been used for electoral expenditure purposes. It is suggested that an easy way to demonstrate this would be to deposit these payments in a dedicated administrative funding account that is not used for any electoral purposes.

Administrative funding payments need to be reported on annual returns by parties and independent MLAs as a receipt.

More information.

A party may not spend more than $10,000 received from a related party on ACT election expenditure in each financial year.  This does not include a payment from a related party to an ACT registered party that is simply passing on public funding paid to the party by an Australian electoral authority.

For example, if a federal branch related to an ACT registered party made a payment of $15,000 to the ACT registered party in a financial year, the party may only use up to $10,000 of that payment for the purposes of incurring ACT electoral expenditure; the remaining $5,000 must not be used for ACT electoral expenditure in that year. If, in the following financial year, the related federal branch gave the ACT registered party an additional $8,000, the party may spend up to $10,000 of the combined amounts on ACT electoral expenditure in that year.  The remaining $3,000 must not be used for ACT electoral expenditure in that year.

Funds to which these restrictions apply may be received in cash or in-kind.  For example, if a federal branch of an ACT registered party pays for ACT election advertising for the party, that payment will be considered within the $10,000 cap on payments.

Parties must retain their financial accounts in such a way as to demonstrate to the ACT Electoral Commission that they have not used funds from related parties for ACT election expenditure in excess of the $10,000 cap.

If a party spends more than $10,000 received from a related party on ACT electoral expenditure in a financial year, an amount equal to twice the amount by which the spending exceeds $10,000 will be payable as a penalty to the Territory.  However, if the party returns the amount by which the spending exceeds $10,000 to the related party within 30 days after the amount was spent, no amount is payable to the Territory.

A payment received from a related party by an ACT registered party needs to be reported in the party’s annual return as a receipt.

There is a cap on electoral expenditure during the capped expenditure period, which commences on 1 January in an election year and concludes at the end of polling day for the election.

For more information on the cap on electoral expenditure see the electoral expenditure and disclosure FAQ.

Election funding is provided to registered political parties and non-party candidates that receive at least 4% of the total number of formal first preference votes in an electorate.

In 2020, this amount was $8.62 per vote.

In 2016, each group of party candidates and each ungrouped candidate that achieved at least 4% of the formal votes in their electorates received $8 per vote (indexed by CPI for future elections), compared to $2 per vote at the 2012 election.

Election funding payments need to be reported on annual returns by parties as receipts.

More information.

Election funding payments may be deposited into any account and may be used for any type of expenditure.