Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and on behalf of Senator Hanson-Young, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) a study published last week by the Drug and Alcohol Review found that, in a 10-year period, a total of $7 million was gifted to the Liberal and Labor parties by alcohol interests, $2 million by gambling businesses and $1 million from tobacco,

(ii) the study found that gambling, alcohol and tobacco industry donations peaked both before elections and during parliamentary debates about policy that directly affect their bottom line, and

(iii) this study quotes an ex-politician stating that 'If someone donates $1000, they support you. If they donate $100,000, they've bought you"; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) ban donations from the property development, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, defence, pharmaceutical, banking, and mining industries, and

(ii) cap all other donations to $1000 per year.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a statement.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting this motion. Just this month, when an actual donation bill was before the chamber, the Greens again failed to engage constructively with the policy debate. They chose instead to grandstand for their Facebook videos. The opposition voluntarily refuses foreign donations and donations from tobacco companies, yet the Greens were quite happy to take a $1.6 million donation from a single corporate donor and accept half a million dollars from a professional gambler being investigated by the ATO for tax fraud. The Senate grows tired of stunts from the Greens on donation reform. The Senate grows tired of their hypocrisy on issue after issue, and, given the recent election results, so do the voting public.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the general business notice of motion No. 1280, standing in the names of Senators Waters and Hanson-Young, be agreed to.