Where Australian political parties and candidates are officially finding their funding

The Guardian's DataBlog posted these graphs covering donations to Australian political parties/candidates based on the latest publicly available information:

 

The Australian Electoral Commission:

Entitlement to election funding

A candidate or Senate group is eligible for election funding if they obtain at least 4% of the first preference vote in the division or the state or territory they contested. The amount to be paid is calculated by multiplying the number of votes obtained by the current election funding rate. The funding rate for the 2010 federal election was 231.191 cents per House of Representatives and Senate vote. This rate is indexed every six months to increases in the Consumer Price Index.

Amount paid

The amount of election funding payable is calculated by multiplying the number of first preference votes received by the rate of payment applicable at the time. The rate is indexed every six months in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index.

The current election funding rate from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013 is 247.316 cents per eligible vote.

The Sydney Morning Herald 31 May 2013:

While the parties are cagey about campaign spending, electoral commission figures show that in 2010-11, the financial year in which the last federal election was held, the Liberal Party spent $108 million, more than three times what the party spent the year before. In 2010-11 Labor spent $88 million, more than double what it spent the previous year.