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Committee's Report

The committee tabled its report on the Electoral and Other Legislation (Accountability, Integrity and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 on 7 February 2020.  The Bill was passed with amendments on 18 June 2020.

An interim government response to the committee’s report recommendations was tabled on 6 May 2020 and can be viewed here. The Government's final response to the report's recommendations was tabled on 17 June 2020 and can be viewed here.

About the Bill

On 28 November 2019, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, the Hon Yvette D’Ath MP, introduced the Electoral and Other Legislation (Accountability, Integrity and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 into the Legislative Assembly. In accordance with Standing Order 131, the Bill was referred to the Economics and Governance Committee for consideration and report.   

The Electoral and Other Legislation (Accountability, Integrity and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 contained a number of proposed amendments relating to:

• funding and expenditure for State elections (including increasing public funding to eligible parties and candidates, introducing caps on electoral expenditure and donations, and increasing policy development funding and allowing independent members to access policy development payments)
• signage at State elections (setting limits on the number and size of signs permitted to be displayed by a candidate or registered endorsing party at pre-poll and polling locations, and creating offences for displaying unpermitted signs for purposes relating to an election within 100 metres of buildings or grounds in which polling booths are to be located)
• dishonest conduct of Ministers (creating offences for Ministers who fail to disclose conflicts of interest or update their register of interests with dishonest intent to obtain a benefit for themselves or another person, or cause detriment for another, with penalties of up to 2 years imprisonment), and
• dishonest conduct for councillors and other local government matters (including introducing new offences relating to a failure to comply with particular conflict of interest or register of interest requirements, changes to processes for dealing with conflicts of interest, and other administrative arrangements).

Inquiry into the feasibility of introducing expenditure caps for Queensland local government elections

On the introduction of the Bill, the Legislative Assembly also agreed to a motion that the committee, when examining the Bill, also consider recommendation 1 from the Crime and Corruption Commission’s (CCC’s) Operation Belcarra Report regarding the feasibility of introducing expenditure caps for Queensland local government elections, with a view to the model commencing after the 2020 local government elections.

Further information can be found on the Inquiry webpage here.

Timeline