Campaign Donation Returns - Important information for Councils

As per Section 306 of the Local Government Act (Act) all candidates in an election must submit an election Campaign Donation Return (CDR) within 40 days after the election. As per the legislation, each return must be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

While the Act does not stipulate the exact means of submission, it is likely returns will either be emailed to the council, or a hard copy delivered in person. The Local Government Inspectorate’s (LGI) role regarding CDRs, is to ensure that all candidates meet the requirements of section 306(1) of the Act. Should a candidate not strictly meet this requirement, and guilt can be proven, they may be liable for a penalty of up to 60 penalty units.

In previous elections, the LGI has prosecuted candidates for breaching the legislation.

However, in some instances where there appeared to be a breach through non-submission, it was later found that the return was submitted but was not recorded on centralised records management systems.

We found that the council did not have a suitable process in place to record the submission of the donation return form, nor did they issue any form of receipt for the candidate to prove that they had submitted the form to council.

In some cases, the CDRs had been submitted over the counter, but had subsequently been misplaced or not recorded; had been submitted via email but council had not acknowledged receipt via return email; or the email had subsequently disappeared from council’s email system, requiring lengthy follow up to retrieve it.

To that end, the LGI would like to encourage councils to put protocols in place to mitigate the risk of returns being misplaced or lost, following submission.

We recommend that where returns are submitted over the counter to staff in person, responsible officers should immediately:

1. Provide the candidate with a hard copy receipt to acknowledge acceptance of the CDR (Council to determine the type of receipt to be used).
2. Record the CDR electronically in the council’s document management system, along with the receipt provided by council.
3. Keep the original form in hard copy and dispose of it in accordance with PROV regulations.

With regards to providing candidates with the option to submit CDRs via email, the LGI recommends:

1. Council sets up a dedicated email address/inbox, whereby an automated acknowledgement receipt can be issued upon submission.
2. Instructions are provided to candidates that choose to submit returns electronically.
3. Returns to be recorded electronically in the council’s records management system, along with the electronic receipt.

Please also note that the LGI will be requesting all copies of CDRs to be provided to us electronically for auditing purposes to ensure compliance with the Local Government Act 2020 soon after the deadline for submissions closes. Ensuring council has clear processes around the handling of returns will ensure this process runs smoothly and minimises the impact on your staff and resources.