Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to make one comment by way of clarification to the leader of the Greens. To the best of my knowledge and to the best of the knowledge of my office, we've not actually received your amendments in a way where you have requested a response. I make this offer to Senator Waters that, if you choose to send us your amendments, we are very happy at all times to respond.

As you'd be aware, Labor already has a bill before the Senate that seeks to achieve the changes proposed by this amendment but we don't support this amendment being made as part of this particular package. Based on our consultation on the not-for-profit sector with the charities, following the implementation of the ban on foreign donations, we understand that, although we would like to see this change as soon as possible, non-political entities who engage in the creation of electoral matters require further consultation and communication and time to adapt their systems. This is something that they stressed very strongly to us when we fought successfully to establish the ban on foreign donations, and it would be remiss of this parliament not to listen to the concerns of those stakeholders.