Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that courtesy. That is foreign money coming in—in my words and from my observations from the inquiry and all the evidence we had. To put it pretty simply: with the support that is completely not transparent—it is unaccountable under the Commonwealth Electoral Act and it is unaccountable under the ACNC guidance—this money means that, pretty much, all the Labor Party and, particularly, the Greens have to do at the next election is register their candidates as candidates for the election. Between GetUp!, between the unions and between these environmental groups that have no accountability in this election process and system, as all other donors do, you don't have to do anything. They are already out there running your campaign for you. They are already out there running the election messaging for you. You have to do nothing, and not a single cent of that is accountable.

Senator Waters interjecting—

Senator Waters, if you don't believe that, you have a look at all of the election campaigning for the recent by-elections that occurred and how much of that expenditure has been made under the Commonwealth Electoral Act returns.

Senator Waters interjecting—

It is not. So, therefore, you are benefitting from what the American equivalent of PACs and Super PACs is. Of course you want us and our donors to be exempt from this because you have somebody out there running all of your campaigns for you and funding them with foreign money. Of course you don't want this to happen.