‘Dirty’ donations deal could hurt Greens, independents
Alex Mitchell |
Australians casting their votes at the next federal election could be hoodwinked by a deal struck between the major parties, the Greens say.
Greens leader Adam Bandt revealed on Saturday he’d heard “rumours” Labor and the coalition had agreed to an electoral fundraising deal designed to hurt independents and minor parties.
In his address to the party’s national conference in Perth, Mr Bandt said he suspected the deal would include donation caps for challengers but increased funding for incumbents, with “dark corporate money” to fuel the major parties.
“If you’re already elected you get a hefty envelope full of cash, but if you’re trying to get elected, you don’t,” he said in his speech.
“Their aim is to rig the electoral funding system, making it harder for Greens candidates, or independents, to compete fairly.”
A parliamentary committee earlier this year recommended lowering the donation disclosure threshold to $1000 and implementing real-time disclosure.
But spending and donation caps could be easily sidestepped by major parties with new challengers to be most affected, Mr Bandt fears.
“A corporation buying five $10,000 tickets to a Labor or Liberal dinner party is allowed, but you giving a direct donation to a local candidate in your suburb could be restricted or outlawed,” he said.
“Teaming up to do a dirty deal would be an attack on representative democracy … the deal would outlaw all kinds of grassroots funding while allowing Labor and the Liberals’ corporate and billionaire donations.”
Mr Bandt pointed out the combined Labor-coalition primary vote at the last election dipped to around 68 per cent, a result that left his party with four MPs to go with their 12 senators.
“The two-party system is dying … Labor may have crawled their way to just over half the seats in parliament because our voting system is masking the big shift away from the political class, but Labor’s vote went backwards at the election,” he said.
AAP
