Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Annual Disclosure Equality) Bill 2021. Labor will be supporting this bill. The bill contains necessary measures to ensure that members and senators are covered by our political funding and disclosure laws.

In 2018 this parliament agreed to important reforms to enhance transparency and protect our democracy. It was Labor that successfully fought for a ban on foreign donations to be included in the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Act 2018. We knew that we had to act to protect our democracy from foreign interference, but this government had to be dragged kicking and screaming into banning foreign donations. It took two years for them to act after Labor introduced our own bill to protect democracy. Because of the reforms Labor achieved in 2018, registered political parties, candidates, Senate groups and political campaigners are unable to accept donations over $100 from foreign sources if they are intended to be used for electoral expenditure or any foreign donation at all over $1,000. However, there is an inconsistency in the way the funding and disclosure framework operates with respect to parliamentarians once they are elected.

This bill will extend the ban on foreign donations that applies to parties, candidates and political campaigners to senators and members of the House of Representatives. It will also align the donations disclosure obligations of serving parliamentarians with those that apply to candidates and to political parties. While candidates for an election are unable to accept foreign donations and are required to submit a return to the Australian Electoral Commission which details their donations and electoral expenditure, this obligation ceases 30 days after the return of the writs. That means that anyone in this place who receives donations personally during their term in parliament is not required to disclose them. It also means that there is a loophole which would allow serving parliamentarians to accept donations from foreign sources. This bill will close that loophole. Now, given the prohibition on parties and candidates accepting foreign donations, it would be surprising if anyone in this place were taking gifts from foreign citizens or entities. That would be going against the spirit of the donations reforms that were enacted in 2018. But the ban should of course be extended to elected members of this place. It's illogical for it to cease 30 days after a candidate is elected. The ban will apply to gifts received by sitting parliamentarians from the commencement of the act.

The other change the bill makes in relation to foreign donations is to prohibit candidates from accepting them from six months prior to either the date of their nomination or the date that they announce their candidacy, whichever is earlier. This will enhance the integrity of our democratic processes and put candidates on a level playing field with elected representatives. This bill will further align the obligations of parliamentarians with those of political parties by requiring them to provide an annual return to the Australian Electoral Commission detailing political donations they personally receive which are over the disclosure threshold. Most donations received by parliamentarians who belong to a political party would be received on their behalf by the political party. The political party must then disclose the detail of those donations each year to the AEC. However, there is currently no obligation on parliamentarians to disclose donations personally received. That means that donations received by parliamentarians who are not members of political parties are not required to be disclosed. That is not right and will be corrected by this bill. Parliamentarians who do not personally receive donations will not be required to provide a return to the AEC. Annual returns will need to include the total value of all gifts received by the parliamentarian during the year; the total number of persons who made the gifts; for each gift over the disclosure threshold, which is currently $14,500, the value of each gift; the date on which each gift was made; and the name and address of each donor. A parliamentarian's return must be provided within 20 weeks of the end of the financial year.

The bill requires parliamentarians to provide an annual return in relation to each financial year from 2020-21 whether the gifts were made before or on or after the commencement of the act—that is, the bill will have retrospective application in relation to gifts received personally by parliamentarians during the 2020-21 financial year. Returns for the 2020-21 financial year will need to be provided within 30 days of the act's commencement, and annual returns will be published on the AEC's website. Candidates will also be required to disclose donations they personally receive during the period of six months prior to the date of their nomination or six months prior to the date of them announcing their candidacy, whichever is earlier.

A similar provision will apply to Senate groups, who will be taken to be a group in an election from six months before the day members apply to be grouped on the Senate ballot paper until 30 days after polling day. These changes will substantially improve transparency and, along with the ban on foreign donations, will put candidates and elected representatives on a level playing field.

There is so much more to be done. If this government really wanted to improve transparency, it would be supporting Labor's proposals to lower the donations disclosure threshold from the current $14,500 to a fixed $1,000 and require donations to be disclosed within seven days. These simple changes would mean that voters have this information when they go to cast their ballot and not have to wait up to 18 months to find out who is funding political parties, as is currently the case.

There are other reforms that would enhance our democracy which the government should be committing to. The government should be providing more resources to the AEC to increase enrolment and turn out. There should be reform of electoral expenditure laws. The government should be establishing a powerful and independent national anticorruption commission—a three-year-old promise left languishing. It should be addressing the spread of dangerous misinformation and disinformation and making laws to prevent governments from pork-barrelling in marginally held seats, and the Prime Minister should be requiring members to disclose secret donations that can't be hidden by a blind trust.

Despite Labor's ongoing calls for increased transparency, the government has not taken any action on real-time disclosure or on lower donation disclosure thresholds or on any other measures. Instead, in the final two sitting weeks of the year, possibly the last of this parliamentary term, the government has finally decided to pursue some form of electoral reform. Labor will support this bill, despite it being a late and imperfect attempt at increased transparency.