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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

  (i) the Australian Electoral Commission published figures about political donations received in the 2017-18 financial year on 1 February 2019,

  (ii) that voters have the right to know which bodies are donating how much to which political party in the lead up to an election, and

  (iii) that transparency in relation to electoral donations is critical to the healthy functioning of democracy; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

  (i) ban corporate donations from vested interests that seek to influence government policy,

  (ii) cap all other donations to political parties to $1000 per year, and

  (iii) implement real-time disclosure of donations to political parties.

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (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. This is again, as we have heard before, more posturing from the Greens in place of genuine reform. Labor has a clear policy to improve transparency in politics through donation reform to help restore faith in our democracy. It was Labor that worked with our charities and not-for-profits to ensure advocacy work was protected, and foreign donations were finally banned from general elections. It will continue to be Labor that pursues genuine electoral reform in the public interest. As usual, the Greens have chosen politics over policy.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Waters be agreed to.