Ms Sherry Perreault:

With regard to changes that the commission would like to see to electoral legislation, it has made many recommendations over the years that relate to matters outside of this area. I will not take the committee's time enumerating those. The most relevant are the question of transparency on expenditure, identifying the source of funding and the source of advertising, particularly if they originate or are funded from outside the State. That would be important to ensuring transparency in this area. Another consideration is the definitions contained in the legislation. We want some alignment with existing legislation. Under the current Electoral Act, the definition of "political purposes" is broad and has posed some challenges. The commission has raised those, as have some members of civil society. The fact that this legislation would have a different definition of what constitutes a political end as opposed to a political purpose in the Electoral Act is something that could be aligned and would allow for more consistent regulation for the person who has to apply the legislation.

The commission's final suggestion relates to expenditure limits, particularly during an election or referendum. We have limits in place during elections and people who participate as a candidate in an election must disclose their election expenses. They are subject to thresholds which they must adhere to and there are offences for breaching that. There are no expenditure limits for a referendum and any third party or political party can engage in campaigning at a referendum and there is nothing relating to disclosure or expenditure limits that they must adhere to in the legislation.