The much touted Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, which would see the need for identification at the ballot box scrapped and the donations declaration threshold limit dropped to $1000 from the federally indexed limit of $12,800, stumbled at its first hurdle.

The bi-partisan Legal Affairs Committee reported back on the integrity bill on Friday to announce it couldn't come to a decision on whether or not it should be passed, a precursor to the battle Labor faces in the hung parliament next week.

"It is in some ways unfortunate that this should be the case with the first Bill to come before this bipartisan committee, however during our deliberations I believe all members of the Committee have worked hard to identify areas of common ground, and it is a success that we have been able to unanimously make this report to the House," Labor committee chair Mark Furner reported.

"What the policy differences mean, though, is that the Committee has been unable to reach a majority decision as to whether the Bill be passed."

One of the biggest problems for the legislation – and those who submitted to the committee – is the government's plan to make the donation declaration limit retrospective, which has been Labor's plan since the LNP changed the legislation in 2013.

The LNP executive was particularly concerned with that plan. In its submission it argued that unhitching the donation declaration threshold from the Commonwealth limit was possibly against the constitution and would make donors embarrassed to donate.

One of the foremost experts in electoral law, Professor Graeme Orr of the University of Queensland, disagreed.

"It is easy to obey two different obligations to disclose information: a party can file a single disclosure document meeting the lower threshold, or it can produce two spreadsheets," he said in his submission.

"It is common for Commonwealth law to require different disclosure than State law, which business subject to overlapping consumer protection, tax or health and safety regimes meet on a daily basis."

As for the embarrassment donors would feel at having their donations disclosed retrospectively, the committee couldn't say, but it has asked the government for 'clarity' surrounding the penalties for not meeting the retrospective clause.

The hung parliament will consider the legislation next week.