Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters entitled Funding and disclosure: inquiry into disclosure of donations to political parties and candidates. In recent times we have seen, in my view, some quite disgraceful amendments to the Electoral Act to allow far larger anonymous donations to be given to political parties in Australia. When you add on the ability to donate to a political party in each of its different state based entities—each one can get a donation up to $10,000 without it needing to be declared—then we have $70,000 or $80,000 that can effectively be given to a political party from one donor without that donor being declared publicly.

It is a source of particular frustration to me as a Democrat because the Democrats, going back to the 1980s, really led the charge and were the pioneers who pushed for the initiation of a disclosure regime regarding political donations. I would like to take the opportunity to particularly acknowledge the role of the first Queensland Democrat senator, Michael Macklin, and his role on this particular committee in the mid-1980s in pushing for the introduction of a reasonable system of disclosure of political donations. That is not to say it was perfect, but it was certainly a significant initiative and was slowly improving and being refined as society and the nature of political donations and politics changed over time. So we have had a major backward step in Australia in recent times.

I was interested and indeed very pleased to see comments by the deputy Liberal Party leader in New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell, expressing concern about this very issue. It should be acknowledged that it is a difficult issue for political parties, particularly for larger political parties. I guess the Democrats have not usually had to worry about disclosing large political donations because we did not get very many.

I do not want to simply score cheap political points against the major parties; I appreciate that they are in competition with each other. Naturally they have the need to get money from wherever they can. Campaigns are becoming extraordinarily expensive, and political parties are not going to concede an advantage to each other—that is just human nature. It would not matter who you put in the positions in those political parties, that would still be the case. That is why you need strong laws. Otherwise, in such a competitive environment it is inevitable that the pressure for bigger and bigger donations and all of the sorts of dangers that go along with them will become greater.

It is for precisely those reasons that Mr O’Farrell—and people like him—felt he should make the comments he did. He can understand the danger that is there, and he recognises—I would assume from his comments, anyway; I do not seek to put words in his mouth—the danger to our democratic system and to the integrity of our democratic system from the way things are and from the way things are going. That would be the case regardless of which party is in government. It is not a party-political comment; it is a straightforward, clear-cut and factual analysis of human nature and the reality of it.

One could note the current controversy in Western Australia involving former Labor Premier Mr Burke and issues relating to donations involving council elections. We have controversies in Queensland about that as well, of course, most notably recently on the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane. It is not something that applies just to major political parties, and it is not something that applies just at the federal level. It is an area in which we need to do a lot more. I think it is time that we seriously examined where to go with this issue.

My understanding is that some other jurisdictions—I heard the other day that Canada was one of them, but I have not had the opportunity to research the accuracy of what I was told—are moving to put in place fairly strict caps on the amount that a person can donate. There have been proposals such as spending limits. Of course there will always be enforceability issues with these sorts of moves, but I do not think difficulties with enforceability issues should be used as an excuse to not try to improve the situation that we have now.

The one positive thing you could say about the Australian electoral system and issues relating to corporate donations, union donations and the disclosure of donations is that we are nowhere near as bad as the United States these days. I have spoken to a number of people involved in politics in the United States, as I am sure everybody in this chamber has from time to time, and even just at the congressional level and with individual positions many of them would say that they have to spend half of their working time fundraising. The US is different; they do not have the same party system that we do. I guess that is at least one positive thing about the strong party system in Australia. I could say some negative things about it, but one positive thing about it is that it reduces the pressure and the temptation in respect of individuals. But it also means it can concentrate the temptation, and the risk of what can be bought with sizeable donations can actually become larger, if it can have a successful influence.

The need for improvements with regard to the funding of political parties and the transparency of political parties, including disclosure of donations to political parties, is becoming absolutely imperative. It is an issue that the Democrats have continued to give significant amounts of attention and time to, and we will continue to do that. But I do believe we need to recognise this imperative in the chamber, as practitioners of politics, and also in the wider community. I think there needs to be greater recognition of just how dangerous a problem this is and how it is getting worse rather than better. The changes to the Electoral Act earlier this year simple exacerbated the problem. The problem was already getting worse, in my view; it has now become much worse. It is not simply a problem with one political party; it is a problem with the political system and we need to do much more to act to remedy it before it becomes even worse. The worse it gets, the harder it will be to fix it.

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters report and seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.