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

Sorry, Senator Pocock. You've reiterated some points that you'd made previously, and I really have to disagree with you about the advantage that the existing parties get by virtue of their ability to promote the party as distinct from the individual. We are reducing by 30 per cent the amount of money that the Labor Party and the Liberal Party can spend on promoting their party. The comparison can't be the fact that the existing parties can spend that money. The comparison has to be: what can those parties do now, and what are they not going to be able to do under this new legislation? That's got to be the comparison. I say: for a new entrant into the scheme, that's a good thing. That's an advantage you have under this legislation which you did not have under the previous legislation. Given the amounts of money that are pulled out of the Australian political system as a result of this legislation, that does give the new contestants an advantage which they don't currently have. They don't currently have that advantage. They are going to be advantaged by this legislation, and, in the process, democracy is going to be a damn sight better in this country.