Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It is incredibly disappointing to actually have to stand up and take the point here in relation to the action of the major parties, who have done a deal, clearly, in the other place. They have bargained on one legislation for the sake of another. And I have a real issue with that, just as a matter of principle, because you should be looking at the merits of each legislation on its own—what the impact of that legislation is. That is a commitment I have made to the people of Warringah.

We are now in a situation where the government is seeking to push forward amendments to very important legislation, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Political Campaigners) Bill 2021. What this legislation does is try to reach back to three years ago to campaigns that non-for-profit organisations may have run in the 2019 election to raise awareness of issues that were relevant to their stakeholders, relevant to communities. The government is seeking to reach back to three years ago and change the rules, change their reporting obligations and impose a whole lot of additional administrative burden. And that is not a good outcome.

A government member interjecting—

Before we get into the grandstanding or the misleading statements that come as to what happens—

A government member interjecting—

The member is not even talking about the same legislation. That's how clueless they can be at times. We are talking about organisations that would be impacted such as Farmers for Climate Action, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the National Association for the Visual Arts, Christian Schools Australia, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Climate Action Network, the Wilderness Society and Sunrise. I know those organisations were impacted by the original legislation, which was a change of classification from a $500,000 threshold to a $100,000 threshold. Because of the rush in which this has been pushed through, we have no way of knowing what the deal is that has been struck between the coalition and the opposition in moving that to $250,000. We simply have no way of knowing the impact and how this will change for these organisations, who this is going to catch and what the retrospective aspect is going to be for so many organisations.

So for the merit of democracy, for the principle of good governance, this should not be rushed through today. There should have been a debate in the other place. This should be coming back to this House with full information from government and from the opposition on the reasons why this deal has been struck. Why is it in the best interests of the Australian public for this legislation, with these amendments, to go through? All I can see is that this is the status quo binding together to try and preserve their hold on power. They are trying to keep out community groups and small organisations from having a say and from raising awareness on issues, and that is undemocratic. So I support the motion to not proceed immediately with these amendments.

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