Better local electoral laws
David Carter has announced:
Local Government Minister David Carter has announced proposed changes to the donation provisions of the Local Electoral Act.
Mr Carter says the proposed amendments reflect growing public concern about transparency and accountability in relation to candidate donations, and in particular anonymous donations.
“The amendments will limit the size of anonymous donations a candidate can keep to $1500, revise the definition of “anonymous”, increase disclosure, reporting and recording obligations and introduce penalties for non-compliance.
“They will bring the Act more into line with the Electoral Act which governs the conduct of parliamentary elections and, in doing so, will help build trust in the local electoral system.”
Excellent. This should end both the practice of declaring donations anonymous, when the identity is effectively known and also the practice of running the donations through a trust to conceal the donor’s identity. Both major candidates at the last Auckland Council election did this.
The changes:
- Limiting to $1500 the size of an anonymous donation a candidate can retain
- Requiring any candidate receiving an anonymous donation of more than $1500 to pay any excess to the electoral officer
- Requiring the electoral officer to pay the amount over $1500 to the local authority that is administering the election
- Expanding the existing definition of “anonymous” to include situations where the candidate could not ‘reasonably know’ the identity of the donor
- Raising the amount of a donation that the candidate must report in their electoral return from $1000 to $1500
- Requiring a third party who receives a donation on behalf of a candidate to disclose the identity of the donor (if known) to the candidate
- Requiring a person administering the affairs of a candidate who receives an anonymous donation of more than $1500 on behalf of the candidate to disclose the identity of the donor (if known) to the candidate
I look forward to seeing the exact amendments.