Governments and oppositions rarely agree on anything but capping political donations is an exception.
Legislation introduced into Federal Parliament this week to cap political donations will pass through both Houses quicker than a fast-acting laxative.
The major parties know they’ve been locked in a spending arms race for far too long.
Federal political campaign spending has risen by 144 per cent over the past 20 years, according to the Centre for Public Integrity. Political parties spent $418 million in the year running up to the 2022 Federal election.
Sure, the independents and minor parties will feel they’re being dealt a dud hand under the proposed new laws that would kick in after the 2025 election, but don’t have the Parliamentary numbers to do much about it.
The Teals may have to go to the extreme length of dropping the pretence of being a community movement and registering as a political party to keep the cash flowing. Clive Palmer will take it to court.
And traditional media companies are going to take a massive financial hit, putting another nail into the coffins of newspapers and news radio.
One overdue change nobody can dispute is the move to political donations being disclosed online in near real-time.
The current archaic system of paper returns, with lax reporting frames and blurred rules between state and federal jurisdictions, defies easy understanding. The grey areas will persist with the states still doing their own thing, but anything is an improvement.
The other constant is the flow-on impact when somebody somewhere hands a whack of cash to a party official. We, the taxpayers, will continue to foot a bill, down the line.
Call it the cost of democracy.
Our electoral system rebates every candidate or party achieving a four-percent quota of the vote in the House of Representatives or the Senate the sum of $2.91 for every first preference vote they attract.
The lawmakers want to increase that to $5 a vote as part of the changes, supposedly to cover the added cost of compliance, which really means having volunteers do some rudimentary data entry.
Craig Regan, Senior Account Director, Primary Communication
