Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Restoring trust in our politicians was a significant issue for my electorate in the lead-up to the election. The introduction of the National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill into parliament today is an excellent start, but rebuilding trust will require more than an absence of corruption. The lack of transparency about who is funding our political candidates and parties undermines our democracy. At a federal level, disclosure of political donations occurs six months after an election and is only required for large donations, but the real picture is worse than this. Last year, only nine per cent of coalition income and 17 per cent of Labor income were disclosed donations. Most political party income is undeclared or falls into a messy bucket called 'other receipts'. I don't think this passes the pub test.

I ran a transparent campaign, with all cash donations declared in real time on my website. This level of transparency is not difficult. It took a week to build my website. This made me think twice about which donations I accepted. I declined some generous donation offers where I thought that there might be a perception of influence. These were agonising decisions, but this is a good thing. We want our politicians to be thinking carefully about from whom they accept money, rather than feeling comfortable that no-one will ever know. Neither major party is likely to voluntarily make this change; they have too much to lose. Community pressure will be required to increase transparency and rebuild trust.