Special Assistance Funding

Special assistance funding is a form of public funding under Division 5 of the Electoral Act 1985. 

It is available to be paid as a half yearly entitlement to eligible registered political parties who claim reimbursement of administrative expenditure.

Registered political parties must meet the following eligibility criteria to receive special assistance funding:

• At least 1 member of the party must have been a member of the Parliament of South Australia for all or part of the half-yearly period; and
• The party must have been a registered political party on polling day for the last preceding general election and continued to be registered for all of the half-yearly period; and
• The agent of the party submitted a valid claim to the Electoral Commissioner setting out the administrative expenditure incurred by the party during that half-yearly period.

Special assistance funding claims under Division 5 are limited to the following maximum amounts:

• For a party with 5 or fewer members of Parliament - $35,000 (indexed)
• For a party with 6 or more members of Parliament - $60,000 (indexed)

Since Part 13A came effect, the Electoral Commissioner has paid the amounts shown in the table below for special assistance funding claims.

Special assitance paid to date  $1,519,999.86

One-off special assistance funding

Section 130UA was inserted into the Electoral Act 1985 on 9 June 2017 and expired on 31 August 2017. This section permitted eligible registered political parties to claim a one-off payment of special assistance funding for prescribed administrative expenditure for the purpose of complying with Part 13A of the Act.

Eligible registered political parties who wished to make a claim were required to submit a claim in writing to the Electoral Commissioner by 31 July 2017.  This section limited the claim to the following maximum amounts:

• For parties with 5 or fewer members of Parliament - $56,000
• For parties with 6 or more members of Parliament - $96,000

The Electoral Commissioner paid the amounts shown in the table below for one-off special assistance payment in 2017. These payments were in addition to any entitlements to half yearly payments of special assistance funding paid under Division 5 of the Act.