James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill 2024. Elections matter. None of us would be here without an election. I speak as a former chair and current deputy chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. I speak as someone who volunteered on my first campaign when I was 15 years old and still at school in Toowoomba. I speak as someone who has spent most of their working life fighting the Left and campaigning for a civil, civic and considered conservativism. I was raised on the belief that politics, voting and elections are part of our civic duty. I also speak as someone who's probably forgotten more about elections and election law than some in this chamber can claim to actually know.

We are blessed to live in one of the world's oldest and most successful democracies. I know that because I've worked in some of the world's newest democracies. Our country works because over the years a lot of people, paid and unpaid, have worked to make it so. Countless Australians have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our democracy and our inherent freedoms that shield us from the dark. The coalition therefore holds that any electoral changes that will impact upon this very special country ought to be assessed on the following four core principles: fair, open and transparent elections; equal treatment of all political participants; freedom of political communication and participation without fear of retribution; and the recognition of freedom of thought, belief, association and speech as fundamental to free elections.

Australia's success as a liberal democracy is reliant on the effectiveness of the Australian Electoral Commission, the federal government and political participants more broadly to satisfy and uphold these four principles. Ensuring that Australians have continued faith in the electoral system is paramount to Australia's faith in its institutions of government and indeed to the very notion of Australia. As such, when assessing legislative proposals, the coalition will always do so through the lens of upholding its four principles to promote a free and fair liberal democracy.

We will look at the amendments moved by the government on this legislation to see if they address some of the concerns that we had with the original bill. The bill will introduce a lower disclosure threshold for Commonwealth elections, real-time disclosure of donations, caps on gifts to political parties and caps on expenditure for political parties. The electoral reforms have a planned commencement date from 2026, which means the laws would not apply for the 2025 general election. That is important. It is very important that we provide political actors with the time required for these laws. We do not support rushed attempts to force these provisions to come into effect in the heat of an election campaign. We should be vigilant in remembering that the Liberal National Party, my party, like other political parties, is run not by faceless ghouls but by volunteers—men and women who see their involvement in a political party as a civil duty akin to their service in other community groups and who have a strong desire to leave their community, their state and their country in a better place than was bequeathed to them. So, while the Queensland voters are my boss, it is the volunteer branch members of my party who give their all so I can stand up for their values.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act is extremely complex, and, with significant reform, we must give all political participants, like my volunteer branch members, time to adjust before the reforms come into effect. We do not want unintended consequences of these changes that could hinder Australians joining political parties or act as a handbrake on party political participation. I have long spoken in this chamber about the inconsistent approach of the intelligentsia, who regard members of mainstream political parties as less worthy than those who support the Greens, the teals or other Climate 200 groups. I would suggest all political participants should be treated equally when it comes to their motivation for joining a party or a cause.

Sadly, the teals and the Greens and their vested, conflicted donors do not share such views. In the last federal election, the teal candidates spent ridiculous amounts of money to win their seats. Monique Ryan spent $2.1 million, Allegra Spender spent $2.1 million, Zoe Daniel spent $1.5 million, Kylea Tink spent $1.3 million and Sophie Scamps spent $1.2 million. This bill would establish an $800,000 cap on spending per seat. So perhaps I can understand why the teals are so upset. It is the teals who are using big money from vested donors to buy elections. The cap for expenditure is a very reasonable upper limit, but still the teals say they cannot support it. The teals have argued that $800,000 sounds good but only for major parties. If you are a minor party or a so-called Independent—remembering that teals are not independent; they're a part of the teal political movement—you should be able to spend more than that. That is not how Australia's democracy operates. All political participants should be treated equally; otherwise you will have a teal coloured gerrymander being brought into Australia. As a former campaign director, I can say to the teals that, if they can't get their message out in a seat with $800,000, then they need to look at their message or they need to look at what they are spending that money on.

This bill takes power away from vested interests and puts limitations on the likes of Simon Holmes a Court by implementing a donation cap. As such, the coalition will consider the amendments but notes that the contents of this bill are not inconsistent with our four core principles. In my foreword to the 2020 JSCEM report into the 2019 election, I noted:

We sleep safely in our beds protected from the claws of the banality of evil because we—

voters—

decide who governs.

We should never forget that we owe it to the voters to have a fit-for-purpose democracy. The coalition supports this bill on that basis.