58Recovery of unlawful donations and expenditure and certain other property developer donations

58 Recovery of unlawful donations and expenditure and certain other property developer donations

58 Recovery of unlawful donations and expenditure and certain other property developer donations

(cf section 96J EFED Act)

(1) If a person accepts a political donation, loan or indirect campaign contribution that is unlawful because of this Part, an amount equal to the amount or value of the donation, loan or contribution (or double that amount if the person knew that it was unlawful) is payable by that person to the State and may be recovered by the Electoral Commission as a debt due to the State from—

(a) in the case of a donation, loan or contribution received by a party—the party, or

(b) in any other case—the person who received the donation, loan or contribution or the official agent of the person.

(2) Subsection (1) extends to a political donation that would be unlawful under this Part but for section 24(5) or 25(3).

(3) If—

(a) a person makes a political donation, and

(b) within 12 months of making that donation the person becomes a property developer (within the meaning of Division 7),

the person must pay an amount that is double the amount or value of the donation to the State and that amount may be recovered by the Electoral Commission as a debt due to the State.

(4) If a person incurs electoral expenditure that is unlawful because of this Part, an amount equal to double the amount or value of the expenditure is payable by that person to the State and may be recovered by the Electoral Commission as a debt due to the State.

(5) A cause of action to recover money under this section may only be commenced within 10 years from—

(a) for a political donation, loan or indirect campaign contribution referred to in subsections (1) and (2)—the date on which the donation, loan or contribution was accepted, or

(b) for a political donation referred to subsection (3)—the date on which the donation was made, or

(c) for electoral expenditure referred to subsection (4)—the date on which the expenditure was incurred.

Note.

Section 78 provides that if the Electoral Commission is authorised under this section to recover an amount from a party or candidate (or from the party agent of the party), the Electoral Commission may deduct the amount from any payment (other than an advance payment) under Part 4 (Public funding of State election campaigns).