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

Well, well, well! After the rubbish last week about the government consulting with the crossbench—which they were not, by the way—we are now told that the dodgy deal on electoral reform is all but done. It's the only time you will see the major parties working together and voting together, and it's not to protect you Australian; it is to feather their own nests. All the major parties care about is themselves.

These electoral reforms have one purpose, and one purpose only, and that is to lock in the power of the major parties. They do nothing about the entities that both major parties use to funnel dark money into their parties. They like the traditional two-party system and they like majorities, then they can do whatever they want, when they want, without scrutiny, debate or transparency.

But the element that really, really gets to me is that they are increasing the amount that the Australian taxpayer is going to be paying per vote. I'm not sure that a lot of Australians know about this but if a candidate gets more than four per cent of first preferences, then the taxpayer pays them three bucks per vote. This will increase to $5 a vote. This public funding is supposed to reduce reliance on donors, but if these reforms goes through, this amounts to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in public funding to the major parties in each cycle.

As 4 Corners revealed last week, 82 per cent of Australians are suffering from financial stress. Families are struggling to put food on the table. They're struggling to keep a roof over their heads. But all the major parties care about is putting more cash into their own electoral coffers. This government and Senator Farrell say they want to build a better democracy, but what they are really doing is reacting to a decline in their primary vote. They don't care about a better democracy. All they care about is maintaining the power of the two-party system.

The last election saw the lowest vote for the two parties since World War II. That's why they're desperate to get this electoral reform through. With more Australians voting for Independents and microparty candidates, like our own network, we need more transparency in donations. But this isn't about transparency; it's about the major parties locking in their advantages so they can dominate this place for as long as possible. Liberals, you are voting for this too, and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves today. It's absolutely shameful. (Time expired)