Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Donations Reform) Bill 2014, a Greens bill of which we are very proud and which, sadly, is desperately needed in this place. My counterpart Senator Lee Rhiannon, who introduced this bill, and our leader, Richard Di Natale, have already spoken on this bill this afternoon. This bill would ban donations from particular corporate sectors that, sadly, have a really sordid history in having unfair influence on decisions made in parliaments just like this one. The bill would preclude donations from mining companies, which I want to focus on tonight. It would also preclude donations from property developers, the tobacco industry—an industry that kills its own clients—and the alcohol and gambling industries.

I want to talk a little bit in particular about the influence of mining companies on decision making. I draw the conclusion that that is in large part because of the enormous donations that big mining and gas companies make to, sadly, both big parties—and I include the Nationals in with the Liberals in that respect. In fact, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, over the last three years there has been a total of $3.7 million given to the Liberals, the Nationals and the Labor Party from fossil fuel companies. There was $1.1 million given to the Labor Party, there was $2.3 million given to the Liberals and there was $200,000 given to the National Party. That is only the federal political parties; it does not include money that was also given to each of those parties at the state level or—who knows?—even at the local level. It is certainly a very rich contribution over such a short period of time.

It has often plagued and bemused me—as an environmental lawyer who has stood with communities trying to protect land, water and the climate from the ravages of coalmining, coal seam gas, unconventional gas and other fossil fuel sectors—as to why we have never seen a refusal of a coalmine, coal seam gas or unconventional gas application at the federal level. I know that our environmental laws are, sadly, far too weak. They do not protect the environment. They do not give communities enough of a say in protecting their local patch or the world's climate. But there had to be something else going on for such consistently poor decisions to be taken by decision makers. So that is why it is so alarming when you see the reality of the amount of these donations that are made.

That is why, of course, we have taken the step of saying we have to clean up our democracy. We need to take away the influence—the corrupting influence—of this big money from industries who then seek permission, approvals and favours from whichever side of politics is forming government at the time. They do not discriminate; they give money to the lot of them. So, in addition to looking at the sectors that are making those contributions, we have this week—in fact, today, I believe—introduced a secondary bill which again has long been our policy and which talks about increasing the disclosure of those donations, because that is a related point. You often do not find out until many, many months later that—wow!—just before an election so-and-so company gave a big wad of dough to so-and-so party and—gee whiz!—after the election they got an approval.