Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government's proposal simply seeks to place a cap on how much can be spent in a single electorate by a single candidate; that's a very sensible proposal. That total cap on spending is $800,000. Again, I don't think many people in this place spend that much in their own individual seats. It happens in just a couple of seats in my home state of Western Australia; it doesn't happen in my seat, but that's the proposal.

Again, I recognise that different people have donations from different forums and people get funding from different places. But, whether it's someone who contributes $5,000—again, a very large amount of money to contribute to a candidate—or someone who just so happens to be individually and personally wealthy, the fact that they should have no restrictions on their spending, no restrictions at all, is very unsustainable. It is completely at odds with the recommendations that we've seen.

Again, I want to go through the history of how we've got to this point. Way back on 5 August 2022, the Special Minister of State did—

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