Northern Territory Electoral Commission annual report 2006-2007
Northern Territory Electoral Commission reports; Reports; PublicationNT
2007
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
English
Northern Territory Electoral Commission -- Periodicals; Elections -- Northern Territory -- Periodicals
Northern Territory Electoral Commission
Darwin
1835-0356
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/231057
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/669607
KEY RESULT AREAS NTEC ANNUAL REPORT 2006-07 PAGE 19 OF 48 3.6 DISCLOSURE All registered political parties are required to lodge disclosure returns with the Commission within sixteen weeks of the end of the financial year. The return requires parties to disclose their donations above $1500 and expenditure during the past year. Donors to political parties are also required to furnish the Commission with a return within 20 weeks of the end of the financial year. It is the political partys responsibility to advise their donors of the requirement to furnish a return to the Commission. All necessary returns were lodged by registered parties and their donors. Further requirements to lodge disclosure returns with the Commission occur whenever a Legislative Assembly election or by-election is held. Publishers and broadcasters are required to lodge returns within eight weeks and candidates and their donors (above $200) have 15 weeks to lodge their returns from polling day. Details of these returns are contained in each election or by-election report. The financial disclosure provisions of the Electoral Act 2004 were originally designed to mirror those of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The nexus was broken by the changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act and the appropriateness of re-establishing that nexus needs consideration including: The abolition of returns by publishers and broadcasters; An extension to the definition of associated entity to include members of a registered political party (or those acting on behalf of such persons) and persons who have voting rights in a registered political party (or persons acting on behalf of such persons); The introduction of annual returns for third parties and their donors; and An increase to the standard reporting disclosure threshold from $1500 to above $10 000 (indexed annually and rounded) for both candidates and registered political parties. The NTEC brought the governments attention to these issues. A private members bill was introduced (Electoral Amendment Bill 2007, Serial 76) on 2 May 2007 to require registered parties to disclose monies spent on each of their endorsed candidates at any election. The Bill was not debated by the end of the reporting year. 3.7 REDISTRIBUTION OF ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES The next redistribution is required to commence in December 2007 with an expected completion date before the end of the 2007-08 reporting year.