Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It has become very clear to all Australians and, in fact, the world—and it is proven by the size of the Independent crossbench in the Senate—that our political system is broken and Australian democratic institutions have been corrupted. That is because, in the land Down Under, money buys political parties, politicians and policies. The situation has become so bad that we even have a former Prime Minister who thinks it is okay to make excuses for the Liberal Party, which happily takes millions of dollars in political donations from a communist dictatorship which has ignored international court rulings and threatened the lives of our Defence Force personnel who dare sail in international trading waters.

In an effort to muddy the waters and confuse the debate, former Prime Minister Howard has tried to treat political donations linked to an aggressive communist dictatorship as though they are the same as political donations from dual Australian citizens. There is a big problem with that. Even our Constitution recognises the dangers associated with the divided loyalties of dual citizens, because under section 44 it bans dual citizens from standing for elected office in federal parliament. So why can't we ban them from donating money to political parties? Whether it is formally or informally expressed, I think we should ban anyone who has divided loyalties from being able to vote let alone make political donations. If your loyalty is not 100 per cent with the Australian people and our democratic liberties and privileges then you should have no say at all on who speaks and votes in this parliament. For example, if you support the terrorist law—sharia law—and a hostile overseas religious leader then you should be banned from all democratic participation in Australia, including the right to donate to political parties, vote and receive taxpayer funded welfare.

I would like to challenge every political party to adopt the Jacqui Lambie Network system—an open and transparent real-time disclosure for political donations—and show the people of Australia exactly who has given them money and how much before legislation is voted on. It is not a coincidence that companies who have donated to our major political parties and who have turned over millions and in some cases billions of dollars trading in Australia have avoided paying tax. Australia's system of political donations has been deliberately set up by our major parties to fail and be vulnerable to corruption and rorting. It has been set up so that those with lots of power and money can secretively give money to and buy improper influence from their pet politicians and political parties.