30 June 2017 disclosure lodgement statistics

During the 2016-17 annual disclosure period there were six State by-elections, three local government by-elections and the 2016 local government general elections for 80 local government areas. There were a number of complexities particular to this disclosure period including:

• disclosures were due during the 2017 local government general elections

• both incoming and outgoing Councillors were required to disclose as elected members

• Councillors who were also candidates during the period were required to disclose twice

• Candidates in groups were required to disclose for their candidacy and their group

• There were many first time candidates so familiarity with the law was low.

The NSW Electoral Commission expected to receive more than 5,300 declarations of political donations and electoral expenditure for the following political participants:

• political parties

• Members of Parliament

• Elected members of local councils

• state election candidates and groups

• local government election candidates and groups

• third-party campaigners

• major political donors.

A summary of the disclosure requirements and statistics for the 2017 reporting period. This information was current at 7 March 2018. For more information about particularly disclosures go to the NSW Electoral Commission disclosure search facility.

Amount of electoral expenditure disclosed

Electoral expenditure incurred

Table 1 shows the disclosed amount of electoral expenditure incurred by stakeholder type (amounts displayed represent millions, ie 623,050 represents 623,050,000).

Table 1: electoral expenditure incurred

Expenditure incurred by:	Advertising	Production & Distribution of Election Material	Internet and Utilities	Employing staff	Office Accommodation	Research	Travel	Other	Total $000
Political Party	623,050	993,775	211,869	234,913	46,983	190,453	37,880	1,341,260	3,680,183
Elected Member	89,893	21,592	10,458	-	560	685	765	82,359	206,312
Candidate	885,975	776,946	138,393	267,313	50,973	96,320	31,614	143,921	2,391,455
Groups	1,253,912	528,731	277,710	18,320	3,833	550	3,798	229,367	2,316,221
Third-Party Campaigner	53,648	20,973	21,827	28,889	2,681	-	10,453	-	138,471
Total $000	2,906,478	2,342,017	660,257	549,435	105,030	288,008	84,510	1,796,907	8,732,642

Amount of political donations made and received

Political donations made

Table 2 shows the disclosed amount of political donations made by stakeholder type. Elected members make the most political donations (with the exception of political donors) and this is because a large number of elected members are members of political parties. Party membership fees are political donations under the EFED Act, therefore membership fees paid by elected members to political parties must be disclosed as 'donations made'.

Table 2: political donations made

Donations made by:	Small Political Donations	Reportable Political Donations	Total $
Political Party	-	1,300	1,300
Elected Member	103,313	794,335	897,648
Group of Candidates	25,354	13,537	38,891
Candidate	8,406	12,586	20,992
Third-Party Campaigner	8,026	103,981	112,007
Major Political Donor		3,974,998	3,974,998
Total $	145,098	4,900,737	5,045,835

Political donations received 

Table 3 shows the disclosed amount of political donations received by stakeholder type.

Table 3: political donations received

$ Donations received by:	Annual Party Membership, Affiliation or Other Subscriptions	Reportable Loans	Reportable Political Donations	Small Political Donations	Total $
Political Party	2,128,052	1,944,870	4,304,867	2,335,955	10,713,744
Elected Member	-	9,853	49,935	172,859	232,647
Candidate	-	25,000	103,363	136,134	264,497
Groups	-	48,336	525,094	345,468	918,898
Third-Party Campaigners	-	-	14,262	-	14,262
Total $	2,128,052	2,028,059	4,997,521	2,990,416	12,144,048

Self- funding by candidates, group members and elected members

Table 4 shows the total amounts candidates, groups and elected members contributed to their own election campaigns.

Table 4: self-funding by candidates, group members and elected members

Category	Self-funding
Candidates	316,563
Elected members	536,353
Group members	1,360,099
Total $	2,213,015

Donor industry groups

Top 20 donor industry groups

Below are the top 20 most common industry groups for major political donors:

1. Labour Association Services

2. Management and Consulting Services

3. Industry Representative Organisations

4. Retail or Wholesale Industry

5. Financial and/or Investment Industry

6. Legal Services

7. Hospitality, Clubs and Accommodation

8. Transport Industry

9. Trusts

10. Building, Construction and Infrastructure

11. Accounting Services

12. Property and Real Estate

13. Health and Social Services

14. Agriculture and Farming

15. Mining and Resources

16. Sport, Shooting and Recreation

17. Pharmaceuticals and Supplementary Medicines

18. Design and/or Manufacturing

19. Engineering

20. Architectural Services

Extending the due date for lodging a declaration

Extension of due date for making disclosures

The due date for lodging a declaration was extended in 141 cases in accordance with section 96L of the Act.

The extensions were approved by the Executive Director, Funding, Disclosure and Compliance under delegation.

Table 5: extension of due date for making disclosures

Stakeholder type	Request received on time	Request approved	Request refused	Request made out of time
Parties	7	5	2	0
Elected members	58	54	4	0
Groups	15	14	1	0
Candidates	73	67	6	0
Third-party Campaigners	0	0	0	0
Donors	1	1	0	1
Total	154	141	13	1

Disclosure obligations and compliance with due date

Approximately 5,300 declarations of disclosures were required to be lodged for the disclosure period. This number does not include any major political donors whose disclosure obligations have not yet been identified by the Funding, Disclosure and Compliance Division. 63 per cent of declarations were lodged by the due date taking into account extended due dates. Overall, 90 per cent of declarations have now been lodged.

Since the due date for lodging declarations, warning letters have been sent to all those who had not lodged a declaration. This resulted in a large number of outstanding declarations being lodged albeit late. The warning letter advises the recipient that a declaration has not been received and enforcement action is now being considered.

As indicated in Table 6, the on-time lodgement rate for declarations has declined after 3 successive years of increases. This can mainly be attributed to the complexities around this particular disclosure period. A number of specific initiatives were implemented to mitigate some of these complexities including:

• Reminder notices were sent via letter, email and SMS to those with a disclosure obligation prior to the commencement of the lodgement period in June 2017, at the end of August and 2 weeks prior to the lodgement due date.

• The general managers of local government councils were provided with information about the disclosure obligations of councillors and we requested the information be passed onto councillors to support their compliance with the disclosure rules.

• Local government councillors who were also candidates were advised of the two separate elected member and candidate disclosure obligations.

• The declaration form for groups was modified so that candidates who were members of a group and who had the same official agent as the group were permitted to make their candidate disclosures in the same form as the group disclosures. This meant that the official agent only had to complete one form for the group and its members rather than separate forms for the group and each of its members.

Of the parties that have not yet lodged a declaration, three are parties registered for local government elections and one is an unregistered party.

All of the elected members who are yet to lodge a declaration are elected members of local councils.

Disclosure obligations and disclosures made by stakeholder type

Table 6: disclosure obligations and disclosures made by stakeholder type

Stakeholder Type	No. of obligations	Lodged on time	Lodged late	Not lodged	On-time lodgement rate	Overall lodgement rate	On-time lodgement rate 2015/16	On-time lodgement rate 2014/15	On-time lodgement rate 2013/14
Parties	50	32	14	4	64%	92%	78%	81%	61%
Elected members (councillors and MPs)	1,546	1,042	410	94	67%	94%	76%	83%	83%
Groups	366	236	96	34	64%	91%	71%	63%	N/A
Candidates	2,412	1,573	632	207	65%	91%	67%	71%	82%
Third-party campaigners	24	13	7	4	54%	83%	N/A	85%	67%
Donors	917	456	273	188	50%	79%	57%	52%	28%
Total	5,315	3,352	1,432	531	63%	90%	71%	68%	67%

Waiving of the audit certificate requirement

Table 7 shows the number and percentage of declarations where the audit certificate requirement was waived (note that political parties are not eligible to have the audit requirement waived).

Table 7: waiver/exemption of the audit requirement

Stakeholder Type	Audit requirement waived / exemption (No. and % of declarations lodged)
Parties	N/A
Elected members	1,299	90%
Groups	199	61%
Candidates	1,575	73%
Third-party campaigners	0	0%
Total	3,073	78%

Provision of political party financial documents

This table identifies the number of parties that have provided and failed to provide the audited financial statements or accounting and financial records of the party as required by section 96N of the Act and clause 8B of the Regulation. The parties that have not lodged audited financial statements and/or accounting and financial records are parties registered for local government elections and non-parliamentary parties registered for State elections.

The Funding, Disclosure and Compliance Division contacted the parties that did not lodge the required financial and accounting documents. A number of those parties subsequently provided the documents or confirmed the party did not have the documents for the disclosure period because they had no or minimal financial activity during the year.

Table 8: lodgement of financial records of parties

Document	Lodged with declaration	Not Lodged with declaration	Not Available	Total
Audited financial statements	21	12	13	46
Financial records	23	10	13	46
Chart of accounts	18	6	22	46
Trial balance	20	7	19	46
Bank statements	26	14	6	46

'Nil' declarations

Table 9 shows for each stakeholder type the number of declarations lodged that contain no disclosures (otherwise known as 'nil' declarations). Note that: donors and third-party campaigners are only required to lodge a declaration of disclosure if they meet the requirements. For a donor, this is making a reportable political donation within the disclosure period. For a third-party campaigner, this is incurring more than $2,000 in electoral communication expenditure during the regulated period for an election. The "nil disclosure" declarations received by the NSW Electoral Commission from donors and third-party campaigners during this period were lodged unnecessarily.

Table 9: nil declarations

Stakeholder Type	Nil declaration	% Nil declarations
Parties	17	34%
Elected members	928	60%
Groups	27	7%
Candidates	505	21%
Third-party campaigners	5	21%
Donors	2	>1%
Total	1,462	28%