Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payman for her question. I don't believe you have accurately described the legislation that we have introduced into this parliament. When you were a member of the Labor Party, which wasn't all that long ago, you took to the people of Western Australia a number of things. You took to the people of Western Australia that we needed to lower the disclosure records for donations. We've done that in this legislation. You took to the people of Western Australia, the people that elected you, the proposition that there would be real-time disclosure of every donation that anybody made to any candidate running in an election, so that you could tell, before you voted for that person, who else was backing that candidate. You took to the people of Western Australia the proposition that we needed to cap donations, and we've done that. We've capped donations—not in the way you've just described; you haven't, I think, accurately understood the proposal that you took to the people at the last election. But we have capped the amount of money that people can donate, and we've done it equally for everybody. This is levelling the playing field. (Time expired)