Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2009. I thank the member for Fisher for those complimentary remarks about me being a fair-minded person in relation to these matters. But I would point out to the member for Fisher that our Constitution does not recognise the term ‘political party’; it actually recognises members of parliament who are elected by the various jurisdictions. One of the polluting factors which I think has occurred in terms of the electoral process and the way in which fundraising takes place—in terms of associated entities and a whole lot of other things that are assumed by the major parties to be acceptable in terms of raising funds so that they can advertise their wares to the electorate—

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