Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Okay—alleged foreign interference in their political process. I don't want there to be one skerrick of concern after our next election that we've got anything like the problems that have occurred in the United States. How do we fix that? We ban foreign donations.

I listened to the contributions of Senator Waters and Senator Siewert, and both of them acknowledged that this legislation progresses that issue. They don't like it. I accept that they aren't going to vote for the legislation. But they both acknowledged this was a step forward. You don't always get everything you want in politics—that's the nature of our system—but this is one of the most significant steps forward in the Australian political system as it relates to donations. This is a significant issue of donation reform. We can't wait any longer. We need to get it done today so that in a week's time we can get it through the lower house. Time is running out. We've only got two more weeks of sitting this year. If we don't get it done today, there's a chance we won't get it done, and a whole lot of question marks will then potentially arise over our next election.