Editing Openai/6943ef1c-da5c-8000-b9e5-a581407e95ea (section)

=== 1. Campaign spending (cap) per federal election: 90,000,000 AUD per election. Australian Parliament House<ref>{{cite web|title=Australian Parliament House|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2425/25bd036|publisher=Australian Parliament House|access-date=2025-12-19}}</ref> ===
# Number of federal elections in 30 years (approx): 30 years ÷ 3 years per election = 10 elections.
# Total campaign spending across 30 years (caps applied each election): 90,000,000 × 10 = 900,000,000 AUD.
# Ongoing annual administrative & permanent costs (non-election items): 10,000,000 AUD per year × 30 years = 300,000,000 AUD. (covers staff salaries, state offices, HQ, legal/compliance, research, travel, year-round advertising etc.)
# By-elections, extra campaigns, legal, compliance, candidate support over 30 years (estimate): 10,000,000 AUD (lump sum estimate for smaller campaigns, special elections, major legal/compliance events).
# Start-up / registration / one-off setup costs: 1,000,000 AUD (party registration compliance, initial staffing, IT, branding — conservative estimate).
# Subtotal before contingency: 900,000,000 + 300,000,000 + 10,000,000 + 1,000,000 = 1,211,000,000 AUD
# Contingency (5% for inflation / unknowns): 1,211,000,000 × 0.05 = 60,550,000 AUD
# Grand total (maximum-plausible estimate): 1,211,000,000 + 60,550,000 = 1,271,550,000 AUD

Rounded for readability: ≈ AUD 1.27 billion (I’ll report this as ≈ AUD 1.3 billion to reflect uncertainty).

Why this is credible as a “maximum”: recent reform proposals have explicitly discussed national campaign spending caps of AUD 90 million (and per-electorate caps) — so a well-funded national party hitting the cap every election is a natural practical upper bound for legal campaign spending per election. Add long-term admin and contingency and you reach the figure above. Australian Parliament House<ref>{{cite web|title=Australian Parliament House|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2425/25bd036|publisher=Australian Parliament House|access-date=2025-12-19}}</ref>