Transport in connection with publicising your campaign
Transport costs will be considered regulated campaign activity if you transport people in order to publicise a campaign that meets the purpose test. For example, you may have a campaign bus that you use as part of your campaign.
Sometimes spending on transport may instead fall within another category of regulated campaign activity. For example, if you hire a van and place advertisements on the van, this may count as election material, or if you hire a minibus to take your supporters to a public rally, the transport costs may need to be counted as part of the costs of holding the public rally.
Regulated campaign activity does not include reasonable personal expenses incurred by an individual in travelling or providing for the individual’s personal needs.
From the Code of Practice
Transport of volunteers or campaigners
It includes the cost of transporting:
volunteers
members, including staff members
others campaigning on behalf of the non-party campaigner
around an electoral area, or to and from an electoral area, including the cost of:
tickets for any transport,
hiring of any transport
fuel purchased for any transport
parking for any transport
where they are undertaking campaigning on behalf of the non-party campaigner.
Other costs
This includes the cost of use, or hire, of any vehicle or form of transport that displays material promoting the election result, including:
design and application of the design to the vehicle or form of transport
travelling between electoral areas
travelling around an electoral area
parking fees where a vehicle is used to display material
Reportable costs include all transport costs associated with one of the other listed activities. For example, transporting someone to a rally.