Northern Territory Explanatory Statements

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ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL 2016


General Outline

• To introduce clauses into the Electoral Act that prohibit certain entities or individuals from
making donations to political parties.
• The key changes are to define who prohibited donors are, namely: liquor, tobacco and
gambling industry entities, and property developers, and to give the NT Electoral
Commissioner the powers to determine if a person or entity is a prohibited donor.

Clause I
This is a formal clause which provides for the citation of the Bill.

Clause 2
The Bill amends the Electorate Act only

Clause 3
Amends Section 3 of the Act by introducing a number of terms relevant to the proposed changes.

Clause 4
This clause constitutes the body of the proposed amendments. It introduces a new division to the
Act: Division 3A Prohibited donations. This division has 3 new sections: 198A Definitions, 1988 No
donations by prohibited donors, 198C Determination that person not a prohibited donor.

Section 198A defines what a close associate is of a corporation means. These include directors and
secretaries of the corporations and their spouse or partner. The definitions also includes second
corporations that have the power to affect decisions of the parent company. Other definitions
include liquor, gambling and tobacco industry entities. These definitions make clear that these
entities do not include stores that may sell these products, but the business industries themselves.
A property developer is also defined as a corporation but, importantly, the developer must be one
that makes applications to the government under the Planning Act. The connection between
property developer and government planning authorities is the issue highlighted by the definition.

Section 1988. The purpose of this section is to prohibit political donations from those entities listed
in section 198A and to insert a penalty clause, 198B(6) for a prohibited donor to make a political
donation. The penalty is set at 200 penalty points which is approximately $30,000 on current values.

Section 198C allows for the NT Electoral commissioner to determine that an applicant is not a
prohibited donor or to refuse to make such a determination 198C(1),(2),(3). The Commissioner's
determination remains in force for 12 months, 198C(4). Sections 198(4),(5) and (6) deal with false or
misleading applications and the requirement by the Commissioner to maintain a register of
prohibited donors.

 

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