Ten candidates from the 2013 federal election, including one Nationals candidate, have been referred to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions for failing to lodge paperwork.
The Commonwealth Electoral Act requires election candidates to disclose details of any gifts or donations, as well as details of expenditure on their election campaign, such as advertising costs.
In February, the Australian Electoral Commission released a list of 11 candidates who had failed to lodge a return. The AEC revealed in its annual report, released on Monday, that 10 candidates had subsequently been referred to the CDPP over the matter. One of the candidates, Charles Blake, had lodged a late return in March, making him unlikely to be among the 10 referred.
The list includes two Katter’s Australian party candidates, one from the Australian Sex party and one South Australian National, as well as five other candidates, either independent or from minor parties.
The CDPP confirmed that one matter had been finalised and five other matters were now before the courts but would not confirm any candidate names.
According to the Richlands magistrates court, Kathleen Hewlett, a Katter’s Australian party candidate, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Commonwealth Electoral Act and was discharged without conviction and given a one-year good behaviour bond.
Rachel Titley, who was a National party senate candidate for South Australia, also failed to lodge a return by the deadline of 23 December 2013. Titley has since filed her return, on 24 October 2014, lodging a “nil” return. According to the AEC, “officially endorsed” candidates of political parties may submit a nil return and roll their reporting into the annual party return which will be released in February next year.
Grantley Siviour, head of the South Australian Nationals, said the lack of lodgment had been an oversight on Titley’s part.
“Rachel failed to lodge a nil return after being advised early in 2014 that she should have completed a return even though the group return had been lodged on behalf of the party ticket by the lead candidate as is required by law,” he said.
“Rachel completed the required form last week and the AEC has acknowledged she is no longer in breach of the electoral act.”
While acknowledging that Titley was at fault, Siviour said the matter could have been better dealt with by the authorities, and that when she was in court the prosecution had failed to turn up on the day.
“My personal opinion is that this matter could simply have been handled quite differently and if the party had been advised that one of its candidates was recalcitrant in lodging a nil return, we would have dealt with it, but we were not advised,” he said.
“To be summonsed to a magistrates court for not filling in a return that the AEC already knew was a nil return, wasting police and DPP resources, as well as the time of the court which surely had more urgent and serious matters to deal with, beggars belief.”
The Liberal Democratic party senator David Leyonhjelm is also the registered officer of the Outdoor Recreation party, which had one candidate who failed to file a return. He said it “wasn’t unusual” for this to happen to candidates in small parties.
“The candidates are individually liable to lodge these forms,” he said. “The party itself is compliant, it’s individual candidates who are at fault. Also, as it’s invariably a nil return they often think they have nothing to declare, but the AEC takes the view that a failure to lodge is still a problem.”
Katter’s Australian party said the national office had directed all candidates to lodge returns.
“In the leadup to the federal election of 2013 all Katter’s Australian party candidates were informed that the candidate return form was their own responsibility,” a spokeswoman said.
“Reminders were issued throughout the duration of the election and AEC candidate handbooks detailing the appropriate process were also distributed to the individuals mentioned.
“Neither Kathleen, who is no longer a member of KAP, or Justin have indicated they will run in any further elections.”
