David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Clearly, after the government said to the crossbench they were interested in consulting over the summer, and they've used that as leverage with the Libs and managed to convince them that this is in both of their interests—to pass in a guillotine with no scrutiny.

The government claims that this bill, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill 2024, will get big money out of politics. I'm all for doing that. Politics should be a contest of values, of ideas and of support in our communities, not who can raise the most money or wage the dirtiest campaign. There's been a lot of talk about what I and other first-time Independent candidates spent last election to crack the two-party stranglehold—to have in a handful of seats, for the first time ever, someone who wasn't from the major parties or, in some cases, from a single party. But there hasn't been much talk about what the major parties spent and what they spent in seats that have never gone to anyone else. They would be totally safe seats. We had the Special Minister of State, months ago, in question time, having a go at me about how much I spent in my election campaign. ACT Labor spent $1.24 million; the ACT Liberals spent $1.43 million in a territory where they had never, ever lost a seat, in the safest of seats.