Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

It was clear to me; maybe it was not clear to you. If the minister’s point is that it was not clear enough, then let us have a law that makes it clear enough. That is the point made by the Australian Greens senator. Perhaps the minister is actually agreeing in those circumstances.

My view is that third parties who can be identified, whose program and objectives are known and understood and whose source of money is known and understood have every right to participate in Australia’s great democracy. But as soon as someone is hidden, as soon as it smells of a conspiracy, as soon as it looks as if it is contrived or an improper way to influence an election we have to be on our guard. Even if the minister—when he answers for the government with respect to the issue and the amendment raised by the Greens—is going to end up disagreeing with the amendment, I think he would be unwise to believe that there is not a problem. There is a problem.

As an example, there is another aspect of the bill in which at last a government in this country is addressing a problem that there has always been—that is, the issue of one party passing itself off as another in an election. The Democrats have been victims of that a number of times in our 30-year history. We could have squealed and moaned all we liked but we were a minor party, we were not the government of the day. Until the government of the day was hurt, nothing was going to be done about it. Well, the government of the day have done something about it and we support them doing something about it. Maybe it could have been done in a better or different way, but we support them doing something about it because it is wrong that someone should be able to pass themselves off as something they are not, with the idea of making an election unfair and making a candidate unable to contest a free and fair election and so perhaps losing their seat, their deposit or something else.

I am disturbed when a serious and genuine national political party expresses a concern about a problem with respect to the way in which elections are conducted. I am concerned if the minister who has responsibility for electoral matters does not take it seriously and sneers at it or is aggressive about it. I am not suggesting that the minister at the table is sneering at it or is aggressive about it, but some people, because they disagree with the Australian Greens, are inclined to think that if the Greens put up an issue concerning the way in which they are treated in an election that concern should be dismissed out of hand. I have had some very fierce contests with the Australian Greens in my 10 years here. I once remember Senator Margetts on her knees red-faced screaming at me from her bench. That is part of the hurly-burly of this place—do not misunderstand me.

I am concerned for free and fair elections in Australia. I am concerned that one of these days the Liberal Party or the Labor Party or my own Democrats Party might find itself subject to the sorts of things that the Greens are complaining of here. We need to ensure that third parties who engage in our political process do so under an open, transparent and properly reported system. I personally am not satisfied that we have that, and it is an issue which deserves a serious response from both the parliament and the minister.