From February 2020, Parliament will debate the Bill. The Bill will be introduced to Parliament in late November 2019 and public consultation will be conducted for 10 weeks (over the holiday period). The Government intends to provide a draft of the Bill to the Centre for Public Integrity, an independent think-tank that aims to oust corruption. In addition, the amount of funding has increased for parties to $6 per vote (up from $3.14) and for candidates to $3 per vote (up from $1.57). That funding will be available to a party or candidate who receives at least 4% of first preference votes (whereas the current threshold is 6%). As such, the government proposes to increase the availability of public funding. Increased public fundingĪs a result of the reforms of donations and expenditure, parties and candidates will receive less private funding of their election campaigns. Whether that is effective will only be revealed if the laws are challenged in the High Court. In setting these figures, it may be that the government has sought to avoid restricting third parties’ communication so gravely as to render the cap unconstitutional. Under the Queensland reforms, a party could spend up to approximately $8 million and a third party could spend $1 million – that is a ratio of approximately 1:8, rather than 1:23 in New South Wales. The Court found that the State had failed to show that the reduced limit was necessary to prevent third parties ‘drowning out’ parties and candidates, or that the figure was reached on some principled (rather than arbitrary) basis. The New South Wales Parliament had sought to reduce the cap on third party expenditure from $1.05 million to $500,000, whereas a political party could spend up to approximately $11.5 million.
The High Court held in Unions NSW v New South Wales that equivalent laws in New South Wales were invalid because they limited the ability of trade unions to participate in free political communication. There is a risk that the limitation on third party expenditure will breach the Constitution.
Queensland previously introduced donation caps in 2011, but these were repealed in 2014. These limits are stricter than those in New South Wales (which are measured annually) and comparable to those in Victoria.