Electoral Legislation Amendment (Annual Disclosure Equality) Bill 2021

The majority voted against amendments introduced by South Australian Senator Rex Patrick (Independent) and Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie (Jacqui Lambie Network), which means they failed.

Senator Patrick explained that:

Just so that everyone understands what this amendment is about—and I did talk about it in my second reading speech—this amendment basically and very simply lowers the disclosure threshold from $13,800 to $1,000. That, I think, is a proper transparency measure.

What does this bill do?

According to the bill homepage, the bill was introduced in order to:

• extend the application of the foreign donations framework to current sitting members of the House of Representatives and Senators;
• require members of the House of Representatives and Senators who receive gifts for the purpose of incurring electoral expenditure or creating or communicating electoral matter to lodge an annual return with the Australian Electoral Commission; and
• extend the period for which a person is taken to be a candidate by an additional six months for the purpose of the disclosure period for candidate and Senate group returns and for restrictions on receiving foreign donations.