Senate debates

Thursday, 15 November 2018

Bills

Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017; In Committee

5:13 pm

Photo of Larissa WatersLarissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry. It was my mistake, Senator Farrell. I do apologise. It was not deliberate. I apologise. So that was amendment (2). I'll just move to briefly outline amendment (3). We are seeking here to lower the disclosure threshold for donations to $1,000. We think that enables far more public scrutiny of what money is being received by whom and, in particular, by which political parties.

Amendment (4) goes to the fact that, at the moment, membership fees aren't considered donations and moneys provided to political parties to attend fundraising events are also not considered donations. There is so much dark money flowing around, going into the coffers of the larger political parties, that is not properly accounted for and that is not able to be scrutinised by the public. This amendment, amendment (4), would say that those contributions are to be considered a donation and therefore should be subject to the other rules that donations are subject to; namely, the disclosure threshold—and, if our amendment is successful—a cap on the amount. I moved those four amendments, as listed earlier.

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