Page 1718 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
publishing of donations during the election period. The amendment establishes a regime of weekly publishing of donations and gifts made to parties and candidates during the election period, which is that time between the end of the Assembly and the election.
This can be made, as Mr Mulcahy has made it, to appear onerous. But of course it does not need to be. As things stand, I assume that no party or candidate would accept donations above $1,000 without being confident of the source and without issuing a receipt. The task of updating a list on a website or, if necessary, advertising in a newspaper is quite a simple one.
Again, we do this at the Greens, which is a party with far fewer resources or capacity than either the Liberal Party or the Labor Party, and I am assured by those who have updated the list on our website that even an independent can manage it—a candidate, someone so silly as to stand as an independent in the ACT, could manage it if they had to.
This requirement echoes that which applies in the United Kingdom, although in a simpler form. People still give donations to political parties and candidates in the UK. So do not fear, colleagues; it does not mean that people will be discouraged from donating to your campaign.
I would have been, and still am, prepared to consider a format that involved just the one disclosure—I am very flexible on this—say, a week before the election, if that would make this provision more palatable to parties in the Assembly. You will understand that the key point is transparency.
The purpose here is to ensure there is not too much of an opportunity for donors and parties to delay disclosure, and that explains some of the apparent complexity too. On all occasions, the ACT election is the third Saturday in October. The first part of this amendment establishes the weekly reporting period from the end of the preceding June until then.
Of course it is not on the third Saturday in October if the federal government chooses to have an election then, so it is not always then. Where that is not the case, this amendment includes the provision which ensures parties would self-report on donations from the end of the previous financial year until the election, whenever it is held.
I understand if people think we are being a little too obsessive, but there is a background story going on around Australia, which is a growing move to get rid of all political donations. I am not ready to go there yet; so this could be certainly a way of restoring public trust if we have this transparency. I think that there is a very strong need for political parties and candidates to make that effort.
If all political donations were banned, existing parties, particularly the two largest parties, would be greatly advantaged and smaller parties and independents who are unlikely to have a lot of resources up their sleeve with which to contest an election would be quite disadvantaged unless they are personally rich. It is for that reason that
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .