Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025

Submission Date: 28 October 2025

This submission has been prepared by the Charities and Not-for-profits Committee of the Law Council of Australia’s Legal Practice Section (the Committee). The Committee thanks the Joint Standing Committee for inquiring into the impact of electoral laws and the recent amendments on charities, among other aspects. The Committee is pleased to take this opportunity to provide important feedback on the operation of the amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) made by the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 (the Amendment Act) as they may apply to charities.

Application of general donations to electoral expenditure

The Committee has been provided with a copy of the submission dated 15 October 2025 made to the inquiry by the Stronger Charities Alliance and supports the recommendation that charities be permitted to use any donation income for the purposes of electoral expenditure.

There are two main intertwined reasons for this recommendation:

• From a policy perspective, the unintended consequences of the amendments will be to restrict charities’ involvement in influencing political parties in setting policies and from educating the public on important social policies of the different parties and candidates.
• From a practical perspective, the amendments will be extremely difficult for charities to operate within, particularly those that may not be or may not intend to be third parties or significant third parties at the start of an election period.

Last Updated on 11/11/2025

Share

• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on LinkedIn
• Share this on Facebook

Tags

• Submissions

Most recent items in Legal Practice Section

Trending Items in Legal Practice Section