CA ANZ has lodged a submission to the Justice Select Committee on the Electoral Amendment Bill. The Bill proposes targeted changes ahead of the 2023 General Election. We focused our feedback on the proposed amendments relating to financial reporting and auditing. 

The key points of our submission are:

• We support the proposal to require all political parties to prepare annual financial statements.
• We recommend the annual financial statements are prepared using a consistent basis of preparation in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand (GAAP).
• We support the proposal to require all political parties to file their annual financial statements with the Electoral Commission and for these to be made publicly available.
• We recommend the Independent Review considers consistent requirements for the auditing of financial statements.
• We support the introduction of a threshold for not requiring assurance over the annual return of party donations (donations <$50,000 and no loans).