The AEC notes yesterday's announcement from the Special Minister of State that the commencement date for federal funding and disclosure reforms will be changed.
The reforms were due to commence on 1 July 2026. Instead, pending the Special Minister of State making transitional rules, the reforms will commence on 1 January 2027. While this is six months later than initially intended, it remains well in advance of the next federal election.
What are the reforms?
The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 is the biggest update to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 in 40 years.
The changes impact political parties, parliamentarians, candidates, significant third parties, associated entities, third parties, donors and other regulated entities.
Further information about FAD reform
Why did the AEC recommend the implementation date to change?
A federal by-election in the electorate of Farrer will be held on 9 May 2026. The by-election's full writ-to-writ period will coincide with the planned timeframe for a range of critical testing of the new funding and disclosure ICT system - this includes integrity, assurance, performance, security and stability testing. Implementation of the system and the most critical period of stakeholder education activities were also scheduled to occur at this time.
The AEC recommended a change to the implementation date to achieve:
- The implementation of a new system with the best possible, and user-tested, functionality,
- a smoother transition between systems and processes for the AEC and political participants,
- a higher rate of understanding and readiness among political participants, and subsequently
- a higher rate of initial compliance with the new financial disclosure requirements.
AEC system constraints
The decision to recommend a later implementation timeframe wasn't taken lightly. It is a consequence of the fragility of the AEC's ageing election management systems. When running a federal by-election - such as for the electorate of Farrer throughout April and May - any major system updates and changes would introduce significant risks to successful delivery of the by-election.
Without system updates being made during the Farrer by-election period, there would have been a significantly compressed timeframe for user testing and education for the funding and disclosure reforms. This sort of system limitation has been a long-standing issue for the AEC to manage which is one of many reasons why the AEC is currently undergoing a once-in-a-generation modernisation and replacement of our election management system (Project Indigo).
The Minister has therefore accepted the recommendation from the Electoral Commissioner to delay the implementation of funding and disclosure reform until 1 January 2027 (pending the finalisation of the transitional rules by government).
