Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to take up the interjection. We are having a broad debate today about the opportunities to improve our electoral operations and I am prepared to argue the case that if you are going to go down this path of capped spending you would have to consider fixed terms; otherwise, the logistics of managing the campaign capping phase would be quite onerous. I present this proposition in an attempt to broaden the debate rather than restrict the discussion to the current proposed measures, which I believe are not intended to provide the major structural reform that Australians are looking for. The measures in this bill are largely an attempt by the Labor Party to cherry-pick for its own electoral benefit. It is not a genuine attempt to reform campaign donations and funding, and should be rejected by the House.

The electoral reform green paper also seeks to encourage public debate about options for improving and modernising Australia’s federal electoral system. I have referred to it several times because I believe it is a very worthwhile document. I note particularly the experiences of other nations, in particular the Canadian and New Zealand experiences. It is argued that Canada, for example, have the strictest regulations of selected countries. It is based on an approach of encouraging small donations from a large number of donors, which I believe would be a positive step. Their scheme aims to limit the funding going into political parties and also caps the expenditure by political parties. Bans apply to donations from corporations, unions, associations and groups, and caps apply to donations to and expenditure by political parties and candidates. At the 2006 Canadian election the expenditure limit averaged Can$81,000 across electorates. The outcome of the Canadian approach, quoted in the green paper, is that the amount of money flowing in, as well as being spent by political parties, has significantly reduced in Canada. New Zealand has adopted a model which utilises a variety of different regulatory tools. For example, to reduce the pressure on candidates and parties to raise money through donations, election expenditure is capped, with political parties able to spend up to NZ$1 million plus an additional NZ$20,000 per candidate. So there are other options throughout the world that I believe are well worth considering. I am sure neither of those nations believe that they have a perfect system. A perfect system probably does not exist, and they are probably tweaking their system as we speak. I think it is inevitable that there will need to be a level of compromise and balancing of the competing demands in any reforms that we undertake now or in the future.

It is worth considering the ramifications if there is no major action on electoral reform in the short to medium term. We need only to look at the experience of the United States to get a glimpse of the future in terms of the extraordinary costs of campaigning. Such costs need to be funded. It is almost inevitable that there will be strings attached, or the perception of strings being attached, to huge donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. We have seen some relatively small-scale scandals in Australia already, and I fear that the prospect of corruption, bribery and undue influence will only increase if the campaign arms race escalates in an uncontrolled manner in the future. There is also the very real prospect that political parties will choose candidates on their fundraising capacity rather than on their capacity to do the job on behalf of their constituents. In a world of uncapped campaign spending, political parties will look to the bottom line and we face the prospect of wealthy candidates effectively buying a seat in parliament in the future. In my view, these are just some of the risks of inaction on campaign funding reform on a broader scale rather than the piecemeal approach we are undertaking at the moment.

I refer briefly to the shadow minister of state in the other place, who has called for a broader approach to the issue. In his contribution to debate on amendments to the bill before the House, the shadow minister said:

Let us have a sensible discussion about where we are going to take the campaign finance reform agenda. Let us work together, which I think we are capable of doing, and let us get an outcome that is an appropriate legacy to restore some confidence in the system …

I am not suggesting for a second that the shadow minister endorses any of my personal views, but he does support the need for a proper debate and extensive reform process, not the cherry-picking or the self-serving changes that I believe we are pursuing at the moment. The green paper also notes:

The accelerating costs of political campaigning create pressures on our electoral system. Consideration needs to be given to how parties, candidates, and other participants in the electoral process, including associated entities and ‘third parties’, are funded and how best to ensure those methods of funding are transparent, open and accountable.

I believe that sums up the considerable challenge we face.

This may appear from the outside to be a dry topic, but I believe that members of our community are very concerned about the perception of inappropriate fundraising or donations to political parties. I think we need to consider the broader issues of how we want to take our democracy forward in the 21st century. Do we want a system where individual MPs spend a significant amount of their time involved in fundraising to secure their seat in future campaigns? Do we want to perpetuate the system where businesses pay thousands of dollars to sit down for a lunch with ministers or others, expecting the community to believe that there are no strings attached? Do we want a system where unions are able to splurge tens of millions of dollars on election advertising campaigns, regardless of the views of their members? Do we want to continue down the path of the campaign arms race, or are we going to get serious about the issue of electoral reform? I believe we must do everything in our power to protect and enhance the integrity of our electoral process, and I fear that this bill falls short of the mark.

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