Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

This amendment does a whole series of things, some of which might be worthy of exploration but others which are problematic. We are not in a position to support these amendments. Senator Lambie is proposing to require parties to establish an electoral expenditure account. We have sympathy for this, but we have already achieved this through the government's amendments to our own bill in response to a JSCEM recommendation. We do not support the proposition that we should provide for anonymous gifts of up to $500 at events per person per event. This could be criticised for creating a new loophole, I would have thought, and is inconsistent with the threshold that applies in the context of the ban on foreign political donations. So we think that the issues that Senator Lambie raises through this amendment should be pursued through the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters in the first instance.