- Electoral Amendment (Finance and Other
Matters) Bill 2023 passes State Parliament
- Delivers on commitment to greater
transparency and accountability of donations to political parties
- Reforms
designed to boost public confidence in election process
The Cook Government's second tranche of
reforms to electoral processes in Western Australia have passed through both
houses of Parliament.
The reforms will provide greater
transparency and accountability of donations to political parties and
candidates, and restore faith in our political system by ensuring greater
transparency, accountability and fairness.
In November 2021, the
Government passed historic reforms making the vote of every Western Australian equal in the
Legislative Council.
The second tranche delivers on a
commitment to improve disclosure laws around political donations, introduce
expenditure caps for election campaigns, and ban all foreign donations.
Any donation to a political party or
candidate over $2,600 will need to be disclosed by the end of the next business
day during the capped expenditure period, which is the official election campaign period - from the issuing of
the writs to the close of polls.
This has increased from the original $1,000 that the
Government proposed, following an amendment moved by the Opposition.
The disclosure improvement means members of the public
can find out each day during a State election campaign who has donated to which
party or candidate and how much they have donated. Outside of that period,
donations must be disclosed within every seven days.
The proposed reforms will introduce a requirement for State
campaign accounts, ensuring reporting compliance, require registration of both third-party
campaigners and how to vote cards, and increase the rate of reimbursement for electoral
expenditure to support compliance with new transparency requirements.
The rate of reimbursement for electoral expenditure was
set 17 years ago and will now be increased from $2.26 to $4.40 per primary vote.
WA's rate will remain the lowest of any Australian State or Territory with
public funding.
This increase will assist with the additional ongoing costs
involved in the new disclosure reporting requirements.
The
Cook Government is also imposing expenditure caps which will apply to political
parties, candidates and third-party campaigners, to deliver fairer election campaigns
and a more level playing field.
There will also be new offence provisions for failure to
comply with disclosure requirements, expenditure caps, campaign accounts and reporting
requirements, and increased penalties for existing offences.
Political parties will also be banned from processing
postal vote applications, and will not be able to distribute them unless in an
approved form with applications returned directly to the Western Australian Electoral
Commission.
Comments attributed to Premier Roger
Cook:
"We made a commitment to ensure
transparency, integrity, and accountability in the political process and we
have delivered.
"Political parties in
WA will no longer be able to meet their disclosure obligations by reporting
under the Commonwealth laws, which have a much higher disclosure threshold of
$16,300. All political entities will be
required to disclose donations above $2,600 by the end of the
next business day during election campaigns and within seven days outside of
that campaign period.
"This means that
every Western Australian will be able to see who is providing money to what
party, or what candidate. This rule will have the same applications to unions
as it does to businesses.
"We have banned foreign donations to
prevent foreign interests undermining Western Australia's democracy, and
introduced expenditure caps to make elections more fair, competitive, and open.
"These
are sensible, well considered and fair reforms which will
provide greater confidence in the Western Australian election process."
Comments
attributed to Attorney General John Quigley:
"When I introduced
this legislation, I dubbed it "Democracy Day" because I strongly believe that these
reforms will provide Western Australians with the fairest and most transparent
electoral system in the nation.
"It is disappointing
that the Liberals and the Nationals voted against these measures to increase
transparency.
"In November 2021, we
passed historic reforms which introduced a single State-wide electorate for the
Upper House, meaning that every Western Australian will be represented by their local Lower House
member and 37 Legislative Councillors in the 2025 election and beyond.
"I am confident that these reforms will go a long way towards both
modernising and restoring faith in our electoral system, that will stand the
test of time."
