Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Banning Dirty Donations)

1. The bill would amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to prohibit political donations from specified industries and their close associates, while also reducing caps on other donations.

2. The prohibited donorA person or entity covered by the bill's donation ban, including specified industry entities, their close associates and some industry representative organisations. categories would include property developers, financial institutions, tobacco and inhaled nicotine businesses, liquor and gambling businesses, mineral resources or fossil fuel extraction businesses, defence industry entities, pharmaceutical entities, and representative organisations mostly made up of those donors.

3. A political donationA covered gift or loan made to, for the benefit of, or through another person for political parties, candidates, members of Parliament, associated entities, significant third parties or electoral expenditure. would include covered gifts or loans made to or for the benefit of political parties, state branches, members of Parliament, candidates, associated entities and significant third parties, as well as gifts routed through another person or entity for electoral expenditure.

4. The bill would make it unlawful for prohibited donors, or people acting for them, to make or solicit political donations, and unlawful for recipients to accept those donations. The bill would attach criminal penalties, civil penalties and recovery of unlawful donations as debts to the Commonwealth.

5. For donations not banned outright, the bill would lower and fix gift caps, including a $1,000 annual gift capThe legal limit on how much may be given as covered political gifts. This bill would lower the annual gift cap to $1,000 and set $3,000 caps for by-elections and Senate-only elections. and $3,000 caps for by-elections and Senate-only elections, and the explanatory memorandum describes the reform as a $3,000 cumulative limit per election term.

6. The bill would treat more subscription, membership and affiliation payments as gifts when they are for federal political purposes or credited to federal accounts, and would aggregate gifts to state branches and associated entities with the relevant registered political party.

7. The Electoral Commission would be able to issue 12-month determinations that a person is presumed not to be a prohibited donorA person or entity covered by the bill's donation ban, including specified industry entities, their close associates and some industry representative organisations., and would have to publish a register of those determinations.

8. If enacted, the bill would commence on the later of the start of the day after Royal AssentThe formal approval a bill needs after passing Parliament before it becomes an Act. This bill had not received Royal Assent in the collected APH record. and immediately after Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 commences. The collected APH record shows the bill was still before the Senate, so no passed text or Act text is available.

No recorded votes have been found yet for this bill.