Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL (ANNUAL RETURNS BY REGISTERED POLITICAL PARTIES) REGULATIONS (REPEAL) 1995 NO. 164

Statutory Rules 1995 No. 164

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Administrative Services

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

Commonwealth Electoral (Annual Returns by Registered Political Parties) Regulations (Repeal)

Section 395 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of this Act.

The Commonwealth Electoral (Annual Returns by Registered Political Parties) Regulations make provisions for Commonwealth electoral administration in relation to Division SA of Part XX of the Act dealing with the annual disclosure returns by registered political parties.

To facilitate the completion of annual disclosure returns by making them less complex, Division 5A of the Act has been amended by the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Act 1995 to provide that annual returns no longer record details of individual transactions within set categories but simply disclose within totals of receipts, payments and debts. The Commonwealth Electoral (Annual Returns by Registered Political Parties) Regulations define the categories for individual transactions.

The amendment to the Act therefore makes the Commonwealth Electoral (Annual Returns by Registered Political Parties) Regulations obsolete.

The existing Regulations provide that parties must report financial transactions within defined categories including, for example, receipts by donation, membership fees and fundraising, payments by broadcast, print and other media administration. Therefore, the policy intention of making Annual Returns less complex will he negated if the Regulations are retained. In addition, the continued existence of the Regulations after 30 June 1995 could cause confusion for political parties as it means they would be required to operate under two different sets of rules.

These Regulations have therefore been repealed in their entirety.

Repeal of the Regulations commences on 1 July 1995.