Summary
Amends the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to: reduce the disclosure threshold to $1,000; require certain persons making gifts above the threshold to furnish a return within eight weeks after polling day; ensure that for the purposes of the disclosure threshold and the disclosure of gifts, related political parties are treated as one entity; prohibit the receipt of a gift of foreign property and all anonymous gifts by registered political parties, candidates and members of a Senate group; provide that public funding of election campaigning is limited to the lesser amount of either the actual electoral expenditure or the amount awarded per vote where the four percent threshold is satisfied; include five additional categories of electoral expenditure in relation to the rental of premises, payment of additional staff, purchase and hire of office equipment, consumables and running costs for equipment and travel and accommodation; prevent sitting members of Parliament from claiming electoral expenditure if allowances, entitlements or benefits received are used to meet that expenditure; extend existing recovery powers; and introduce new offences and penalties and increase penalties for existing offences.