Senior office holders

A senior office holder of a party is a person involved in the management, control or the operations of the party.  A person must be a senior office holder to be appointed as a party agent of a party.

Senior office holders may include the following: president, deputy president, chairperson, deputy chairperson, vice-chairperson, general secretary, assistant general secretary, secretary, deputy secretary, state director, deputy state director, treasurer, deputy treasurer, convenor, or deputy convenor.

Find out more about the duties that senior office holders have under electoral funding laws by watching the video below.

Duties of a senior office holder

A senior office holder of a registered party must report in writing to the NSW Electoral Commission any conduct that:

• is in connection with the party

• the office holder knows or reasonably believes may be a breach of the Electoral Funding laws.

It is an offence to fail to report such conduct without a reasonable excuse.
An example of a reasonable excuse is when a senior office holder knows or reasonably believes a report of the conduct has already been made to the NSW Electoral Commission. 

New requirements for funding eligibility

Registered parties must provide the NSW Electoral Commission a list of the names of its senior office holders and a summary of their roles and responsibilities in order to be eligible for any public funding payments for electoral expenditure at a State election, administrative expenditure or policy development expenditure.

A party is not eligible for any of these payments unless the party promptly notifies the NSW Electoral Commission of any changes to those senior office holders or their roles and responsibilities.

If provided by the parties, the NSW Electoral Commission publishes on its website the names of all senior office holders and a summary of their roles and responsibilities.