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

This is a question for the Prime Minister. Voters have a right to know who is funding their political candidates. In the last 20 years, 21 per cent of private funding to the major parties has been disclosed—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Curtin will resume her seat for a moment. That is unacceptable. I can't hear the question. The member is entitled and deserves to be heard in silence. If anyone interjects during her question, they will be asked to leave the chamber immediately. I'll ask the member for Curtin to begin her question again and for the time to be reset.

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

Voters have a right to know who is funding their political candidates. In the last 20 years, only 21 per cent of private funding to the major parties has been disclosed donations, 47 per cent is listed as undisclosed and 31 per cent is listed as other receipts, so about $4 out of every $5 of private political funding is dark money. In the upcoming electoral reform package, will the government get rid of dark money in politics?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Curtin for her question, and I thank her for the work that she does as a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. The Special Minister of State will be looking carefully at all the recommendations that come forward from JSCEM, including additional comments and proposals which are made by individual members. I know that she has raised this issue with me in meetings, and I know that she has very clear views about it.

Some of the views of the member for Curtin align with commitments we've made to improve transparency and accountability. For example, we have said that we support real-time reporting of political donations, and we support reducing the disclosure threshold. We believe that electoral reform should be undertaken in a consultative way and in a bipartisan way that moves forward. The Special Minister of State will continue to have discussions across the parliament on these recommendations and reforms ahead of JSCEM's final report, which is expected later this year. I do think that that is important.

We have other commitments we made before the election. We're a government that fulfils the commitments that we make. One of those commitments, of course, was for the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. We've not only put that into legislation, we've also passed it and it's now operating. That's what we do. That compares with what had occurred previously, where governments had been elected with commitments to create anticorruption commissions and just didn't get around to actually introducing the legislation in the parliament, let alone setting them up.

We think that, overwhelmingly, people who participate in the political process do so from a position of wanting to make a contribution to the nation, and I think people engaging in political parties is a good thing. People engaging in community political action is a good thing as well. An active citizenry is an important component of our political democracy here in Australia. We will bear all of that in mind with any legislation that's brought forward. I look forward to continuing to engage with the member for Curtin on this issue, but I encourage her to engage with our Special Minister of State on this issue as well.