The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 introduced significant reforms to the funding and disclosure scheme, Part XX of the Electoral Act. The commencement date for these reforms is 1 July 2026. The changes will not impact the 2025 federal election. The reforms include:

• reducing the disclosure threshold to $5,000
• introducing expedited disclosure of donations
• introducing donation and expenditure caps
• introducing a new disclosure entity: nominated entities
• expanding requirements for federal accounts
• changing the definition of donation, candidate, and third party
• changing the definition of electoral expenditure and introducing administrative expenditure
• introducing the definition of peak representative body
• calendar year reporting (replacing financial year)
• changing annual and election returns
• changing election funding
• introducing administrative assistance funding
• updating timeframes for publication of returns by the AEC.

Further information can be found at Funding and disclosure legislative changes.

The Electoral Reform Act introduced minor amendments that impact the funding and disclosure scheme and came into effect on 21 February 2025, the day after Royal Assent.

The minor amendments are related to:

• registration of significant third parties and associated entities
• the Transparency Register
• compliance and enforcement.

Further information can be found at Funding and disclosure legislative changes.

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 20 February 2025.

The significant funding and disclosure reforms in the Electoral Reform Act, commence on 1 July 2026. These changes will not impact the 2025 federal election.

The minor amendments that impact the funding and disclosure scheme came into effect on 21 February 2025.

See Funding and disclosure legislative changes for further details.

The significant disclosure reforms in the Electoral Reform Act commence on 1 July 2026. These changes will not impact the 2025 federal election.

Donors, political parties, and other disclosure entities will need to be aware of how the reforms impact them before that date. That may require adapting processes, resources, tools and systems to ensure compliance with the new requirements.

The AEC will communicate with impacted disclosure entities and provide guidance and support leading up to, and following, commencement (1 July 2026).

These legislative changes impact the Australian public and disclosure entities, and the AEC. The AEC will need to extensively prepare to implement new policy, processes, resourcing, tools, systems and technology to successfully deliver the significant changes to administer the funding and disclosure scheme.

The AEC has begun work on the initial stages of planning for these significant changes to the scheme.

The AEC will communicate with impacted disclosure entities and provide guidance and support leading up to, and following, commencement (1 July 2026).