Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've got news for the charities, churches and advocates out there who are worried about complying with the donations rules rushed through yesterday. I don't want you to worry about these rules—nobody else does; they're completely optional. If you don't want to disclose your donations under these new laws, just leave them off the record. That's how the Liberal and Labor parties do it. A bunch of charities won't have learned about this stuff before, so let me give you a short course on how it works.

Say you've got a donor lined up who wants to help you out but is a little shy and would rather not let the whole world know they're handing you money. No worries! Because that donor can give you $4,499 every day of the week. Anything up to that amount is given a free pass. Isn't that fabulous? Right on the Monopoly board. Even better, they can give you $4,499 the next day, the day after that and the day after that. It's fabulous! They can do that every day, 365 days a year, and you can easily get away with not having to declare a cent.

But maybe you're thinking you want to take more than that in a day. That's easy. Take your donor out to a fundraising dinner. You can charge whatever you like for a ticket and there's no need to make it public. Isn't this fabulous stuff? Can't be bothered to run a dinner? That's fine too. Ask them to pay you from a trust fund. Just make sure they call it a 'blind trust'. You're getting the go here, right up there. If you need more help on how this works, ask the Libs to explain it to you.

Let's say you mess up and accidentally follow the rules. The good news there is that you don't have to disclose anything for up to 19 months after the money has changed hands anyway. None of this is illegal; it's all within the rules. It's how these guys up here play the game, so you might as well play it right back at them. The bill from yesterday doesn't give us more transparency. It doesn't stamp out the power of money in politics. If Liberal and Labor actually wanted to do that, they'd strengthen the laws we put on ourselves.