James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill 2024. This bill responds to this parliament's inquiry into the 2022 election, conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. Each parliament conducts such an inquiry to consider both the performance of the electoral system and its legislation following an electoral event, and to consider any further changes that might be required to keep our electoral regulations consistent with current behaviours and practices.

The bill that was introduced by the government yesterday looks to implement recommendations from that committee's work, which the assistant minister referred to as being 'multipartisan'. But it was not multipartisan in agreement of the recommendations of that committee and its inquiry. Coalition members of that committee reflected our position when they provided a dissenting report to that committee's work.

As coalition members stated, the coalition believes that any proposed electoral changes should support our system of fair, open and transparent elections which treat all political participants equally. Our system must encourage political participation that protects freedoms of speech, belief, association and thought. No participant should have fear of retribution for their beliefs or their support. The coalition believes that those who join or actively support political parties, like those who support civil society movements or not-for-profit organisations, do so on the basis of sincerely-held beliefs and a genuine desire to participate in their democratic society. Members of established political parties are not less worthy than those who support other forms of political campaigning movements or civil society causes.

Changes to regulations at federal and state levels of government have increased the regulatory burden on political parties, making it harder for active grassroots participation. This is not a good outcome for democratic participation in Australia. Financially stable political parties with active membership representing the broad political spectrum are important foundations for a healthy democracy. The governing legislation and regulatory framework for political parties should ultimately encourage grassroots participation, not make it harder.

This bill looks to implement recommendations 1 to 10 of the joint standing's interim report tabled in June 2023. Recommendation 1 proposed to lower the disclosure threshold of donations to $1,000, and this legislation reflects this. As the coalition stated in the response to the committee's report, we are concerned that there must be a balance between privacy and transparency. We have seen political intimidation by some in the community recently, often on the offices of parliamentarians. Any threshold should not be a discouragement to participation in the electoral system where there is any fear of intimidation or retribution from publication of the support of political parties or candidates. The Grattan Institute argued for a higher threshold of $5,000, noting this important balance, and stated:

This would protect the privacy of small donors, and keep administration costs manageable, while ensuring that all donations big enough to matter are on the public record.

Recommendations 4, 5 and 6 of the interim report are also reflected in the legislation. These propose to introduce donation and expenditure caps to the electoral system. The bill proposes to introduce a cap of $20,000 each year, indexed annually, which will apply to individual donors and entities. On expenditure, the bill proposes to introduce a cap of $90 million for each political party. A cap of $800,000 will apply to expenditure by any party or candidate on any individual electorate. A Senate cap will apply for a state or territory that will be valued at the number of electorates in that jurisdiction. The key concern for coalition members through the process of the committee's inquiry on this matter was that caps be applied fairly and equitably. The ability to set the caps of donations for the Commonwealth system that has never had this limitation is new ground and may require review.

Another important aspect of the government's legislation is that it will capture political entities outside parties and candidates. As Professor George Williams stated on the potential loopholes with caps when he appeared before the joint standing committee:

Unless we actually have a holistic regime, people will set up the equals, whether they be charities, third parties or the like. We need to make sure that they are equally covered with appropriate caps, disclosure and the like. Otherwise, we'll just end up with the electoral fundraising and the fight moving from parties to third parties.

We welcome the view of the government that these caps should also apply to significant third parties, associated entities and third parties, who will be subject to expenditure caps of $11.25 million annually, with other limits at an electorate, state and territory level.

Recommendations 2, 3 and 7 have been implemented through measures to implement faster disclosure timeframes, to alter the definition of 'gift' under the electoral law and to establish a system of common accounting for Commonwealth campaign accounts.

These recommendations were all supported in principle by coalition members, and we see merit in these as improvements to the current system's integrity.

It has taken the government nearly 18 months to bring forward legislation in response to the interim report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into the conduct of the 2022 federal election and nearly a year to bring forward legislation to address the final report of that committee. The government has had this time to consider and draft the legislation before the parliament today and, instead of providing the House with time to debate it in the normal manner, it has introduced it in a rush on a Monday for immediate debate on a Tuesday. We will continue to work with the government on this legislation as there are aspects with which we agree; however, the process for its debate and introduction have not been conducive to considering the wide-ranging impacts on the electoral system or the broader Electoral Act. As such, the opposition will be reserving our final position on this legislation, noting that we have yet to receive advice on some aspect which the government has undertaken to provide.

Debate adjourned.

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