Fadden by-election financial disclosure returns published today

Financial disclosure returns lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission by candidates for the Fadden by-election, held on 15 July 2023, are now available for public inspection.

The election disclosure returns are available on the AEC’s Transparency Register at https://transparency.aec.gov.au/

The returns cover donations, electoral expenditure, and discretionary benefits by candidates that contested the Fadden by-election. All thirteen candidates lodged returns, with five of those candidates lodging nil returns. No donor returns were lodged for the Fadden by-election.

Note: Candidates and Senate groups that are endorsed by a political party are able to provide a nil disclosure and roll their reporting into the political party return for the 2023-24 financial year, which will be available for public inspection on Thursday, 1 February 2025.

What is the Transparency Register?

The Transparency Register is a searchable database of financial disclosure information. It includes images of the original returns and a data-export function to enable users to undertake additional analysis of the data outside of the Transparency Register.

Any questions on the navigation of the Transparency Register should be directed to the AEC’s Funding and Disclosure helpdesk on 02 6271 4552.

Editor’s notes: The disclosure requirements for elections are outlined on the next page.

Editor's notes:

Financial disclosure requirements

Candidates and unendorsed Senate groups

Candidates are required to disclose the total sum of donations received and used to fund their campaign, along with the number of donors and details of donations received where those donations total more than $15,200 from a single source. Details of electoral expenditure and discretionary benefits are also required.

Candidates endorsed by a registered political party may submit a ‘nil return’ and roll their reporting into the annual return for their party if those financial transactions were the responsibility of a party committee. Political party returns for the 2023-24 financial year will be released in February 2025.

Donors

Donors must report donations totalling more than $15,200 made to an individual candidate. Donors must also report donations received by a donor totalling more than $15,200 from a single source that were used in turn to fund donations to an individual candidate.

Further information on the financial disclosure scheme can be found on the AEC website.