LobbyLedger
Process Issues
Problem 1: Database used to publish financial disclosures is outdated
The current AEC database is archaic and provides a challenge for the public and journalists to scrutinize efficiently. There is a lack of standardization of the names and addresses of donors.
Problem 2: Financial disclosure process is inefficient
An Annual Return that must be completed by political parties for each financial year is time-consuming for political parties to monitor the incoming donation data and for AEC to manually process and aggregate this data.
Regulatory Issues
Problem 3: The AEC only publishes political donation information once per year
The political donation registry is published too infrequently. The annual release by the AEC can contain information on donations which occurred up to 18 months ago. This delay does not communicate influence on current affairs in a timely manner.
Problem 4: Only donations above $13,800 are required to be disclosed
The high disclosure thresholds enables “money-laundering” type behaviour whereby donors can legally “split” donations to avoid disclosure 1 . Donations under $13,800 on multiple days to multiple branches of a political party to avoid disclosure. In 2017, approximately 50% of political donations
were not disclosed