Using a dedicated campaign bank account

Dedicated campaign bank accounts for local government elections are required to ensure transparency of financial matters, including receiving gifts and loans and incurring electoral expenditure.

Your group must open this dedicated campaign bank account before applying to register as a group and you’ll need to provide the account details in this application. Only one dedicated campaign bank account is required for a registered group of candidates.

All gifts or loans received by members of your group must be deposited into your group’s dedicated campaign account. All campaign expenses including electoral expenditure for a local government election must be paid from your group’s dedicated campaign account. If you want to use your own personal money to fund your group’s campaign, you must transfer it into the group’s account before using it to pay campaign expenses.

There are restrictions about how amounts can be paid from the account. The use of a credit card is strictly prohibited.

Any amounts remaining in the account at the end of the election can only be dealt with in certain ways (see fact sheets below). Excess amounts cannot be transferred back into personal bank accounts.

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