Legislative Council Election Expenditure Policy

 Changes to Legislative Council election expenditure policy

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission has recently reviewed its policies concerning Legislative Council election expenditure, in particular in relation to the value to be attributed to re-used or re-cycled election material such as signs and car wraps.

Under the TEC’s previous policy, candidates were required to include a value for re-used election material in their Expenditure Return. However following advice, candidates are advised that the relevant election expenditure must relate to the election of the candidate at the particular Legislative Council election, and not some other election for which the expenditure may have been incurred.

In practical terms, this means:

• Only expenditure incurred in relation to the particular Legislative Council election should be included in a return. In other words, if a candidate is re-using material from a previous election, they should not include a value for that re-used material in their return.
• Expenditure incurred to update old advertising material, such as stickers to overlay on old signs, should be included.