Members of NSW Parliament

All members of the NSW Parliament have obligations under the Election Funding and Disclosures Act 1981 (the Act).

The Funding and Disclosure Guide for Elected Members and Official Agents provides members of Parliament and their official agents with information about their obligations under the Act and practical information about how to complete and lodge a declaration form.

All members of Parliament (or their official agents) are required to submit a declaration with the Election Funding Authority by 25 August 2009.

You still must lodge a ‘nil’ declaration if you have received no political donations or incurred no electoral expenditure. 

Download a declaration form

Appointing and registering an official agent

An official agent is responsible for:

  • managing political donations and electoral expenditure on behalf of an elected member,
  • keeping proper records of a member's political donations and electoral expenditure, and
  • lodging a declaration of political donations and electoral expenditure on behalf of an elected member.

Members of Parliament who are members of a registered political party are not required to appoint an official agent. Your official agent is automatically the party agent of your party.

Independent members of Parliament must appoint an official agent and register the official agent with the Authority before accepting $1,000 or more in political donations or incurring $1,000 or more in electoral expenditure during the election period for the next state general election or by-election (the election period for the next state general election or by-election starts 23 April 2007 and ends 30 days after the next election or by-election).

Official agents must:

  • be on the NSW electoral roll,
  • have not been convicted of an indictable offence, an offence under the Election Funding and Disclosures Act 1981, an offence involving dishonesty or an electoral offence, and
  • have successfully completed the training provided by the Authority.

The Authority has provided an on line training program for prospective agents. Complete the on line training today.

Once a prospective agent has successfully completed the training program the member is to complete a Notice of Appointment of Official Agent form and lodge it with the Authority. The Authority will register the person as the member's official agent if all the necessary criteria are met.

If you are an independent member of Parliament and you are going to receive less than $1,000 in political donations and incur less than $1,000 in electoral expenditure during an election period you are not required to appoint an official agent and are deemed to be your own agent. 

Political donations

You can only accept $1,000 or more in political donations if:

  • you have an official agent, and
  • the political donations are made to the official agent.

A political donation is a gift (monetary or otherwise) made to or for the benefit of a member of Parliament. Political donations include:

  • monetary donations,
  • the purchase of tickets and other items for a fund raising event,
  • the giving of a gift or the provision of a service at no charge (or at a discounted charge) also known as a gift in kind, and
  • annual subscriptions or membership payments to political parties.

Political donations of $1,000 or more are known as reportable political donations. Reportable political donations also include multiple donations of less than $1,000 made by the same person to the same member of Parliament in the same financial year and the donations in aggregate are $1,000 or more.

Your official agent must keep a record of the details of all reportable political donations including:

  • the name of the member of Parliament to or for whose benefit the donation was made,
  • the name of the donor,
  • the residential address of the donor or, if the donor is not a person, the official address of the donor,
  • the ABN of the donor if the donor is not a person,
  • the date the donation was made,
  • the amount of the donation,

In the case of donations that are not reportable your official agent (or you if you don’t have an agent) is required to record the total amount of non-reportable donations received and the total value of the non-reportable donations.

  • reportable political donations can only be accepted from entities with an ABN or from individuals,
  • you cannot accept reportable political donations from unknown persons or entities,
  • you cannot accept certain indirect campaign contributions valued at $1,000 or more including office accommodation, vehicles, computers and other equipment, 
  • you cannot receive loans of $1,000 or more unless the details of the loan are recorded and disclosed, and
  • volunteer labour is not an in-kind gift or indirect campaign contribution.  

Campaign accounts

If you accept $1,000 or more in political donations or spend $1,000 or more in electoral expenditure during an election period you must have a campaign account. All political donations must be deposited into the account by your official agent and all payments for electoral expenditure must be paid from the account by your official agent.

Your official agent must be authorised to operate the account. Only your official agent or someone acting on their behalf can operate the campaign account. Members of Parliament are not to operate the campaign account (i.e. make deposits, withdrawals or payments) except to deposit their own funds into the account for the purposes of funding their campaign.

A campaign account can only be used for the following purposes:

  • deposit personal funds of the member of Parliament,
  • deposit political donations,
  • make payments for electoral expenditure,
  • make a payment to the member of Parliament to reimburse them for personal funds they paid into the account,
  • make political donations to other councillors, members of Parliament, candidates or groups who are members of the same party as the MP,
  • make payments for expenditure incurred in connection with a member of Parliament’s duties.  

Issuing Receipts for Political Donations

When an official agent receives a reportable political donation ($1,000 or more) for a member of Parliament they must:

  • obtain the details of the donation,
  • write out a receipt (or acknowledgement slip for gifts and services provided in kind) for reportable political donations and issue the receipt to the donor; and
  • deposit the donation into the member’s campaign account.

Each receipt and acknowledgement slip must contain a statement to advise the donor of their obligation to disclose political donations to the Authority.

The Authority provides receipt books to members of Parliament and their official agents. Contact us to request receipt books and we will send some to you. There are 50 receipts per receipt book. 

Electoral expenditure

Electoral expenditure is any expenditure for or in connection with promoting or opposing, directly or indirectly, the election of a candidate or a group of candidates or for the purpose of influencing, directly or indirectly, the voting at an election.

This includes, but is not limited to, expenditure for:

  • advertisements in radio, television, the Internet, cinemas, newspapers, billboards, posters, how-to-votes and any other printed election material;
  • the distribution of electoral material;
  • raising funds for an election;
  • stationery, telephone, postage, electronic transmissions;
  • employment of staff for election campaigns;
  • election campaign research.

Your official agent (or you if you don’t have an agent) must keep proper records of your electoral expenditure including receipts or invoices for expenditure items and samples of all advertising and printed material.

Am I allowed to accept ‘in-kind’ contributions or indirect campaign contributions?

Parties, elected members, candidates and groups are not allowed to receive the following indirect campaign contributions if the value of the contribution exceeds $1,000:

  • the provision of office accommodation, vehicles, computers or other equipment,
  • the full or part payment by a person of electoral expenditure incurred or to be incurred by a party, elected member, candidate or group,
  • a person waiving all or part of a payment that is to be paid by a party, elected member, candidate or group to the person.

All other in-kind gifts of any value may be accepted by parties, elected members, candidates and groups.

An acknowledgement slip must be issued to the donor when they make an in-kind gift valued at more than $1,000. The acknowledgement must show the value of the gift, a description of the gift, the date of the gift, the name, address and ABN (if applicable) of the donor. Contact us to request free acknowledgement books.

In kind gifts and indirect campaign contributions must be disclosed as political donations by the party, elected member, candidate or group who received the gift.

Volunteer labour is not an in-kind gift or indirect campaign contribution.

Disclosing political donations and electoral expenditure

There is an ongoing six monthly disclosure obligation for all Members of Parliament (or their official agents).

Declarations for the six month period ending 30 June are due by 25 August each year. Declarations for the six month period ending 31 December are due by 25 February each year.

Each Member of Parliament, or their official agent, is required to lodge a Declaration of Political Donations Received and Electoral Expenditure Incurred by the member during a six month disclosure period.

Declarations for the period ending 30 June 2009 must be lodged with the Authority by 25 August 2009. The disclosure period for this declaration commenced on 1 January 2009 and ended on 30 June 2009. 

Auditing declarations

Declarations must be audited by a registered company auditor if the member of Parliament is entitled to receive a  public funding payment under the Election Funding and Disclosures Act 1981.