The federal government has been unable to reach a deal with the coalition on setting a $20,000 limit on how much an individual can donate to candidates, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says.
There was hope the reforms could pass federal parliament by the end of the year, with Thursday being the last sitting day before MPs and senators leave Canberra for the summer break.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says the government wants to get "big money" out of politics. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
Senator Gallagher said she was confident a deal could be struck in the new year before the next election, due to be held by May.
"We want to have donation caps, we haven't been able to land it," she told ABC Radio on Thursday.
"We will try and deal with this in February because we're really, really, very keen to get this done before the election.
"We want to get big money out of politics."
The laws would be due to come into effect by mid-2026, and would not be used during the upcoming election.
The reforms would also see donations of more than $1000 forced to be disclosed in real time.
Political parties would have a spending cap of $90 million, while special interest groups such as unions or Climate 200 would have a limit of $11 million.
Concerns had also been raised about an $800,000 cap per electorate.
Senator Gallagher said Special Minister of State Don Farrell would continue negotiations on the electoral reforms in coming months.
"We haven't been able to land it in this week, there were some last minute amendments," she said.
"Senator Farrell will ... reach out over summer and try, there's a lot of bills that will still be important."
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