[LINK] online access to Political Funding & Disclosures

[Sylvano]

Hello Linkers

I visited the Funding and Disclosure pages at the The Australian Electoral 
Commission website when their recent email update advised of deadlines for 
relevant people and organisations to submit financial details. 

The online tool at http://fadar.aec.gov.au/arwdefault.asp gives access to 
details back to the 1998/1999 financial year.

But it's a bit painful, and you just wonder why there isn't some kind of .csv 
download.  Partly, I suppose because a part of the focus is on accessing .pdf 
facsimiles of original documents.  

Though, the following example shows up upside down on screen, which is 
annoying.  They're not all upside down, mind you. But perhaps there may be an 
expectation that people may just be printing these items out, anyway...

 http://fadar.aec.gov.au/Returns/9/D8291.pdf

If you attempt to use the 'Analysis' option, be aware that you can't have all 
the fields left as 'All' on some of the forms, as it will return no matching 
record - You have to subset to see the underlying data.

All in all, I find it's all bit odd in the way it's structured and designed - 
and there are some holes in the available data - but with some effort you can 
pull up some info. 

<quote>
The financial disclosure scheme established under Part XX of the Commonwealth 
Electoral Act 1918 (the Act) was introduced to inform the public about the 
financial dealings of parties and others involved in the electoral process.

It requires registered political parties and their associated entities, donors 
and third parties to lodge annual disclosure returns with the Australian 
Electoral Commission (the AEC).
</quote>

Returns are due by 20 October and by 17 November depending upon who you are, 
so there's still a little waiting to be had before the 2007/2008 returns 
details are available.

Enjoy,

Sylvano

-- 

Gnomon Publishing
http://www.gnomon.com.au/