Overview
If a political party wishes to nominate candidates for an election, the political party must be registered with the ECQ. Registered political parties must meet specific eligibility criteria and maintain compliance with all legislated obligations under the Electoral Act 1992.
For the purposes of state campaign bank accounts, expenditure caps, and political donation caps, an associated entity is considered part of the registered political party they are associated with. More information can be found on the Associated entities page.
Please click on the navigational tabs above to find out about the requirements for registered political parties.
Have you come across a term you don’t understand? Check our glossary for help.
Registration of a political party
The registration of political parties makes their roles and actions transparent to the public. Political parties must apply for registration with the ECQ and meet specific eligibility criteria. Once registered, the name of the registered political party is published on the ECQ’s Register of Political Parties.
Applications for registration and changes to registration can be found on the Register of Political Parties - Notices page.
Links to further information:
Forms:
Appointing or changing political party agents
Agents play an important role in elections as they are responsible for ensuring a registered political party’s obligations under the Electoral Act 1992 are met. Political parties must appoint an agent after becoming registered. An agent must be an adult, consent to their appointment and declare their eligibility to act as an agent. Political parties have 28 days to appoint a new or replacement agent.
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Forms:
Using a state campaign bank account
State campaign bank accounts are required to ensure transparency of financial transactions, including receiving political donations and incurring electoral expenditure.
All registered political parties must have and use a state campaign bank account. The ECQ must be notified of the state campaign bank account details within 5 business days of a political party being registered. Registered political parties must also notify the ECQ of any changes to the bank account details within 5 business days.
All political donations must be deposited into a party’s state campaign account within 5 business days of receiving the donor statement. There are also restrictions about what other amounts can be placed into a party’s state campaign account (see State fact sheet 11 for more details).
All electoral expenditure for a state election must be paid for from the party’s state campaign account.
Registered political parties must not use the same bank account for local and state elections.
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Disclosing gifts and loans
Agents of registered political parties have obligations to disclose gifts and loans received by their political party.
Gifts and loans of $1,000 or more (including cumulative amounts) received from a single donor within a 6-month reporting period must be disclosed to the ECQ. Disclosure returns are lodged via the Electronic Disclosure System (EDS). Most of the information in a disclosure return is accessible by the public.
Generally, disclosure returns must be lodged within 7 business days of the gift or loan being received. This is known as real-time disclosure. In the last 7 days before election day, disclosures of gifts or loans received must be lodged within 24 hours.
Note: Queensland law bans political donations from property developers and industry bodies with property developers as the majority of their members. The ECQ publishes a register of individuals and entities who, following an application made to the ECQ, have been determined not to be prohibited donors. The register and application forms for a determination are available on the ECQ website at Prohibited donors scheme.
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Political donation caps
Queensland’s electoral laws impose limitations (caps) on the amount of political donations that can be made to, or received by, registered political parties or state election candidates.
Not all gifts or loans are political donations. Caps only apply to political donations.
A political donation is any gift or loan given to a registered political party or state candidate that is accompanied by a donor statement (see State fact sheet 5 for more information).
Gifts or loans not accompanied by a donor statement may not be deposited into a state campaign bank account and cannot be used to incur electoral expenditure for a state election.
Between 1 July 2022 and 25 November 2024, registered political parties must not accept more than $4,000 from the same donor. A political donation must not exceed the cap either by itself, or when added to other political donations made by the same donor during the same donation cap period.
The caps will be adjusted after the 2024 state general election, and a new cap will apply from 26 November 2024 to 27 November 2028.
Political donations are subject to the same disclosure requirements as other gifts and loans.
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Incurring electoral expenditure
The term electoral expenditure has a specific meaning for state elections – it's incurred for a campaign purpose and can include the cost of expenses like:
- billboards and signs.
- advertisements broadcast on radio or television, at a cinema, or on the internet
- opinion polling or research.
This is not an exhaustive list – agents of registered political parties should read the ECQ’s fact sheets and handbook for more detailed information about what is and is not electoral expenditure, as not all campaign expenses will be considered electoral expenditure.
All electoral expenditure incurred towards a campaign must be paid for from the registered political party’s state campaign account. Agents of registered political parties must also record and disclose all electoral expenditure in an election summary return within 15 weeks after the election. This includes all electoral expenditure whether it was incurred during a capped expenditure period or not.
There are caps on the amount of electoral expenditure that can be incurred during the capped expenditure period (refer to the Electoral expenditure caps tab).
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Electoral expenditure caps
Expenditure caps are limitations on the amount of electoral expenditure that can be incurred during the capped expenditure period for a state election. Any expenditure paid for before the capped expenditure period will still count towards the cap if the associated goods are first used for a campaign purpose during the capped period.
2024 state general election
For the 2024 state general election, the capped expenditure period starts on Tuesday, 2 April 2024 and ends at 6pm on election day. Registered political parties may incur electoral expenditure of up to $95,964.09 during the capped expenditure period in each electoral district where they have endorsed a candidate.
By-elections
For a state by-election,the capped expenditure period starts onthe day the writ for the election is issued and ends at 6pm on election day. Any electoral expenditure incurred by a registered political party will count towards the expenditure cap of that party’s endorsed candidate. In other words, parties and their endorsed candidate must not collectively spend more than the candidate’s cap of $90,748.65.
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Preselection and endorsement of a candidate
A registered political party may endorse a candidate to contest a state election.
Notification of preselection ballots
Preselection is the process by which a political party chooses a candidate to endorse for a particular election. A preselection ballot is where members of the party vote in a poll for the purposes of preselecting a candidate for endorsement.
A party’s registered officer must give the ECQ written notice at least 7 days before voting starts in a preselection ballot for a state election. Only parties that use preselection ballots as part, or whole, of their preselection processes need to comply with this requirement .
If a registered political party endorses a candidate in a state election, the party’s registered officer must, within 30 days of election day, notify the ECQ whether the selection of the candidate involved a preselection ballot. This is the case even if the party did not conduct a preselection ballot as part of the selection process.
Notification of endorsement
Regardless of how a candidate is endorsed, the party’s registered officer must notify the ECQ of a candidate’s endorsement within 7 days. Similarly, if a party withdraws a candidate’s endorsement or changes their endorsement, the ECQ must be notified within 7 days.
Links to further information:
- State fact sheet 10 – Preselection ballots and endorsement of candidates
- Preselection Ballot Handbook (State and local government elections)
Forms:
Nomination of a candidate
The registered officer of a registered political party is responsible for nominating candidates endorsed by their party. Nominations must be accompanied by a nomination deposit.
Nominations must be lodged during the nomination period, which commences after the issue of the writ. Nominations close strictly at midday on the last day of the nomination period – nomination forms received by the ECQ after this time will not be accepted.
Information on how and when to nominate for the election will be published prior to the nomination period.
Electoral advertising and how-to-vote cards
There are specific requirements for registered political parties relating to electoral advertising and election material. Registered political parties and their agents must ensure that they are aware of all regulations relating to:
- the broadcast and publication of electoral material
- the authorisation of electoral material
- how-to-vote cards.
How-to-vote (HTV) cards show how a party wants voters to rank their preferences on their ballot paper when voting for their endorsed candidate in an election. HTV cards have specific requirements and must be approved by the ECQ before a registered political party or endorsed candidate distributes them during an election period.
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Lodging election summary returns
Disclosure returns ensure that transfers of money used to support election participants in a state election are transparent.
In addition to reporting gifts and loans in real-time, election summary returns are required after a state election. The election summary return is a summary of all electoral expenditure incurred for an election, and it must be accompanied by an audit certificate and a bank statement from the registered political party’s state campaign account.
The return must be submitted within 15 weeks after the election.
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Claiming election funding
Agents of registered political parties may claim election funding if any of the party’s endorsed candidates receive 4% of the formal first preference vote. Maximum entitlements are calculated by multiplying the formal first preference votes (for eligible districts) by the relevant election funding amount.
Claims must be lodged with the ECQ within 20 weeks after election day.
Claims for election funding must itemise each item of electoral expenditure incurred for the election and include supporting documentation such as invoices, copies of advertisements, receipts, etc.
Registered political parties will only be paid the amount of electoral expenditure claimed (and accepted by the ECQ), or their maximum entitlement, whichever is lower.
Links to further information:
- State fact sheet 25 - Election funding claims
- State fact sheet 7 - Definition of electoral expenditure
- Election funding claims policy
Forms:
Lodging periodic returns
The agent of a registered political party is required to lodge a disclosure return for each 6-month reporting period. The return must be lodged within 8 weeks of the end of the reporting period. The return can be lodged via the Electronic Disclosure System (EDS).
The return must include:
- the total amount received by the party
- the total amount paid by the party
- the total amount of outstanding debts, incurred by the party, as at the end of the reporting period
- a copy of the bank statement for the party’s state campaign bank account
- an audit certificate completed by a qualified auditor.
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Record keeping
Registered political parties must keep all records relating to an election campaign for 5 years after the day that the record is made.
Political parties are subject to audit procedures and compliance activities conducted by the ECQ. There are substantial penalties for not complying with record keeping responsibilities and obligations.
Good record keeping supports full and accurate disclosure. Registered political parties and their agents should:
- record gifts and loans received, and electoral expenditure incurred, as soon as practical so they are not overlooked or forgotten
- save any paper records electronically to ensure they are not destroyed
- keep comprehensive records orderly for easy and quick retrieval
- regularly back-up electronic records
- ensure record keeping is up to date.
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Compliance
Election participants can read about the ECQ’s Compliance Approach – including the ECQ’s expectations of election participants, and commitments to enforcing electoral laws – here. To report non-compliance, please check here to ensure you are reporting the non-compliance to the correct agency.
The ECQ publishes a range of fact sheets and handbooks for election participants, including registered political parties and their agents. You can use the ECQ website’s information for registered political parties to learn about parties’ obligations under the Electoral Act 1992. Registered political parties and their agents should also familiarise themselves with the full content of the relevant legislation and seek independent legal advice if required.
Party agents who commit an offence under the Electoral Act 1992 may be subject to fines or prosecution in court, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
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