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

I move Australian Democrats amendment (10) on sheet 4879:

(10) Schedule 2, item 12, page 40 (after line 8), at the end of subsection 306(2), add:

  (2AA)    For the purposes of this section, the amount or value which exceeds $10,000 is taken to be the total amount of all gifts made by a person for the benefit of a party as a whole whether to National, State or Territory branches of that party.

As opposed to the last item, which I waved through on the voices, I do want to speak to this amendment. The amendment refers to subsection 306(2) and reads:

For the purposes of this section, the amount or value which exceeds $10,000 is taken to be the total amount of all gifts made by a person for the benefit of a party as a whole whether to National, State or Territory branches of that party.

I have understood the government’s clear argument that it wants the disclosure level lifted to $10,000 but that everything above $10,000 should be disclosed. The problem is that the way in which the act is constructed at present—I suspect an unforeseen or unintended consequence from its original construction—is that it is possible to make multiple donations in one year in which you must make your annual return, which could amount to a far greater amount undisclosed than the threshold.

The Australian Democrats seek to amend the regulatory gap that allows the disclosure threshold to be applied separately to each division of a registered political party. In other words, we seek to give effect to the control of multiple donations. Where a political party has national, state and territory branches—and I think all the four participants in this debate, the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, the Democrats and the Greens, are in that situation—it has the cumulative benefit of nine thresholds; that is, donors can write separate cheques of an amount just under the threshold.

Effectively, the current threshold of $1,500 allows donors to make nine donations if a party has nine divisions in Australia, and that will total $13,491 without disclosure. With the proposed increase to $10,000—and I note the point that Senator Brown reminded me of yesterday; that is, that it now means more than $10,000—it will mean that nine multiple donations would then allow a total of $90,000 to be donated without disclosure. That is just unacceptable under any circumstance.

I note that it was reported in the Age newspaper last week that the tobacco giant Philip Morris had adopted this method of donating in the past four years. I am not able to verify the validity of that report, but I do note that it was a report. If the new $10,000 threshold for disclosures were applied, it is calculated that that they could have made up to $200,000 in political donations over the four years, which could have been made in secret. This Democrat amendment will make it an offence to make multiple donations over and above the disclosure level. We think the public has a right to know where the money comes from and, more importantly, why it is coming. We think that the public expects there to be disclosure of significant and material donations.