Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I was last speaking on the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2005 approximately five weeks ago I was saying how outrageous it is that this government is abolishing the right of people to enrol to vote after a federal election has been called. I was calling on the government to commit itself to an advertising campaign to let people know that it is changing this law and to let people know that, if they move house or turn 18, they are now obliged to change their electoral enrolment immediately to ensure that their right to vote continues. But I would now like to turn to the matter of funding disclosure.

Every political party conducts fundraising, as does every political candidate. There is nothing wrong with this, and it is a necessary and healthy part of our political life. But it is important that fundraising be transparent and that it be open. This bill effectively kills transparency. At the moment, all political donations above $1,500 must be declared and are on the public record. It is true that the $1,500 limit was set some time ago and, while we would have supported keeping the $1,500 limit in place, perhaps some more modest increase being proposed by the government would have met more favourable consideration from us. Perhaps that would not have been out of the question and would not have been objectionable. If they had come up with a reasonable proposal for a modest increase, that would have met with more support on our side of the House.

But this bill raises the level of disclosure to the, frankly, extraordinary level of $10,000. This will enable secret donations of $9,999 to be made. Furthermore, the state branches of political parties are separate entities for the purposes of disclosure, which means that up to eight donations of $9,999 will be allowable. In effect, secret donations of up to nearly $80,000 will now be legal once this bill is passed.

It pays to look at some examples of international benchmarks of allowable secret donations. In the United States, only donations under $200 need not be declared and any donation above that must be declared. In Canada, every single donation received must be declared. I am not saying that we should adopt that system, but there is no case for increasing the level of funding disclosure from $1,500 to $10,000—a very significant increase which the government has not come anywhere near justifying.

What is the government’s reason for doing this? If this law had been in place for the electoral period of 2004-05, around 85 per cent of donations to the Liberal Party would have been secret. This is not good for democracy. Politicians already have a bad name in the community. If the community thinks that people or firms are able to make large secret donations to political parties and that these people or firms may or may not deal with the government on a commercial basis, then the name and reputation of all politicians will be sullied—and this government will be responsible for that.

I believe that there is very little political corruption in Australia on either side of politics. There is very little peddling or buying of influence and no evidence that political corruption is widespread in Australia. I would be very surprised if widespread corruption was discovered, but I would like to make two comments. Firstly, I think that one of the reasons that the Australian political system is free of corruption is that we have a transparent and open system of donations and accountability. Secondly, it is important that the system not only not be corrupt but also be seen not to be corrupt. The changes proposed under this bill fail this test abysmally. How will we know if someone who benefits from a government decision did or did not donate $9,999—or, indeed, up to $80,000—to the government’s re-election campaign? Of course, we will not know, and that is not good for the health of Australia’s political system. All sides of politics should declare their significant donations. Donations received by the Australian Labor Party should be declared and on the public record, as should those of the Liberal and National parties and all other political parties.

This is a bad bill. It is a bill which makes it harder for people to vote but easier for secret donations to be made. It is a bill which rips up 66 years of convention in this country whereby people are able to enrol to vote in the first few days of an election campaign. It is a bill which goes against the often stated recommendations of the Australian Electoral Commission—including recommendations made by the commission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters after several federal elections—that abolishing the right of people to enrol to vote in that period will reduce the integrity of the electoral roll.

This bill should be opposed and it will be opposed. It will be opposed in this House, in the other place and in the community. If enacted it should be repealed, and it will be repealed when Labor comes to office. Labor will deliver a system which provides transparency and openness about political donations in this country. We will deliver a system which makes it easier for people to exercise their democratic rights in this country, not harder, as this government has done.

A government has a choice when it comes to matters such as this: it can go down the road of more transparency and more accountability and make it easier for people to vote or it can make voting harder and the system less accountable. This government has gone down the latter road, and when a government goes down that road you can be sure it has done it for its own partisan political advantage. That is a matter of some disgrace and shame for this government. This bill must be opposed and we will continue to oppose it in every possible forum. When Labor comes to office these measures will be repealed and a fairer system—a system which provides accountability and promotes a greater degree of confidence by Australians in the area of political donations—will be put in place. Hopefully, that will happen sooner rather than later, on the election of a Labor government.

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