Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

S (—) (): Last week, we finally got to see how the 2022 election was funded and who filled the coffers of the big parties. It shows what it always shows: big money is running politics. While Clive Palmer's multimillion-dollar donation to his own party dominated the news, the Labor, Liberal and Nationals also raked in $240 million in funds. Donations to political parties continue to reap rewards for the donors. It's why we have weak safeguard laws and more coal and gas projects are being opened in a climate crisis. It's why reforms to hold the financial sector to account or to regulate gambling keep stalling. It's why governments continue to spend millions on consultants at the expense of the Public Service.

In some ways, a bigger story than the donations we know about is the donations we don't know about. The source of at least 30 per cent of donations to political parties remains unknown. That's just not good enough. Our current laws are full of loopholes to avoid transparency. Donors can contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars as 'membership fees' to party affiliated business forums and not report that as a donation. Donors can donate to affiliated bodies who then funnel the money to the party without disclosing where it came from. Donors can spend thousands of dollars on a dinner with the minister but it's not a donation if they think they got value for money from the event.

It's very easy to see how fossil fuel companies getting in the ear of the minister and getting massive public subsidies to keep destroying the planet think that they're getting value for money. Donations below $15,200 don't need to be disclosed at all, which inspires a lot of donors to make out their cheque to $15,190. Donors can make big donations to political parties and voters don't find out until 20 months later—well after the election.

We urgently need donation caps, to get big money out of politics. We need election spending caps to put an end to the arms race that makes parties so reliant on political donations, and we need reforms to ensure that all donations over $1,000 are disclosed in real time so that people know when they go to the ballot box who's pulling the strings of the parties they're voting for.

The Greens have been campaigning for decades to clean up our democracy, and we urge Labor and the crossbench to join us in supporting reforms to make sure that politicians work in the public interest, not the interests of their corporate big donor mates.