- Reaction score
- 7,821
- Points
- 1,160
It dates back to 2019 when he was running as a candidate in Sydney, and looks like they didn't follow some of the rule with where it goes and some other things that have more to do with inexperience than malice (like making donations to his campaign that exceeded limits and using his credit card to pay expenses vice some kind of corporate card that would have been set up specifically for the campaign).
These things happen regularly, and why the claims are audited by EC. The rules are not straightforward if you've never done it before, and this thing happens fairly regularly, as you get a lot of people with zero experience trying to do it on their own with limited support (usually other people who've never done it before), especially for nominations where they don't have any kind of party backing in place behind them.
Experienced MPs with campaign staff get picked up for similar issues during actual electrion campaigns, and anyone who thinks this is a big scandal should read the EC guildelines. They do a pretty good job with examples, but still not simple or straightforward with lots of room for misinterpretation. Relies a lot on good procedures, good recordkeeping, and following a lot of rules, so all stuff that people are generally not good at, and why there are accountants that make money doing basic tax returns.
Political Financing Resources and Training - Tools for Candidates
