Electoral Laws (Restoring Electoral Fairness) Amendment Bill 2025
Bill Story
The journey of this bill through Parliament, including debate and recorded votes.
Introduced the bill to restrict prisoner voting to those serving 1+ year sentences, remove property developer donation bans for state elections while retaining them for local government, apply donation caps per financial year, and extend election material authorisation to 12 months before general elections.
“The Crisafulli government believes that law-breakers should not be choosing our lawmakers. The people who demonstrate disregard and disdain for our laws should not be selecting the parliaments that enact them.”— 2025-12-11View Hansard
Referred to Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee
Plain English Summary
Overview
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's electoral laws. It restricts voting rights for prisoners serving sentences of one year or more, removes the ban on property developer donations for state elections, allows political parties to borrow from banks for campaigns, changes donation caps to apply per financial year instead of per election cycle, removes Electoral Commission oversight of party preselections, and extends the period for authorisation requirements on election materials.
Who it affects
Prisoners serving sentences of 1-3 years will lose voting rights. Property developers can donate to state campaigns again. Political parties gain more fundraising flexibility and less oversight of their internal processes.
Prisoner voting restrictions
The bill lowers the threshold for removing voting rights from prisoners serving 3 years or more to those serving 1 year or more. This also applies to young people aged 18+ serving detention sentences.
- Prisoners serving sentences of 1 year or more cannot vote (down from 3 years)
- Young people in detention for 1+ years also lose voting rights
- Applies to state elections, local government elections, and referendums
Property developer donations
The bill removes the ban on property developer donations at the state level, which was introduced following the Crime and Corruption Commission's Belcarra Report in 2018. The ban remains for local government elections but with a new loophole allowing donations to parties if stated as not for local government purposes.
- Property developers can donate to state election campaigns
- Ban remains for local government elections only
- Developers can donate to parties with a statement that the donation is not for local government purposes
Political donation caps
Changes the donation cap period from the approximately 4-year period between general elections to each financial year. This means donors can give up to the cap amount each year rather than once per election cycle.
- Donation caps now apply per financial year instead of per election cycle
- Cap amounts remain the same ($4,800 to parties, $7,200 to independents)
- Retrospective to 1 July 2025
Campaign financing
Allows candidates and registered political parties to use loans from banks and other financial institutions to fund their election campaigns, where previously only loans from private or unregulated lenders were permitted.
- Bank loans can now be used for electoral expenditure
- Removes restriction that excluded financial institution loans from campaign accounts
Preselection oversight
Removes the Electoral Commission of Queensland's powers to audit and inquire into how political parties conduct their preselection ballots for candidates.
- ECQ can no longer oversee party preselection processes
- Parties no longer need to follow prescribed model procedures
- Removes administrative burden on ECQ
Election material authorisation
Extends the period during which election materials must include authorisation details from 26 days before polling day to 12 months before an ordinary general election. Also allows candidates to use PO boxes instead of home addresses.
- Authorisation required on materials 12 months before elections (up from 26 days)
- PO boxes can be used instead of residential addresses
- Improves transparency but also candidate privacy