Forum calls for cap on political spend
BY BIANCA BIRDSALL and ANA SANAEE
Political donations may be the flavour of the month but fewer than 20 people gave up their Friday night on April 4 to tell their views to a parliamentary committee.
The forum on political funding at the NSW Parliament ended a day of public hearings held by the Legislative Council Select Committee on Electoral and Political Party Funding, chaired by Reverend Fred Nile. The committee also includes MPs from the Liberal, Shooters, Labor and National parties but conspicuously absent is Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon, who has campaigned for funding reform for the past eight years.
But Rhiannon, who believes the current system is damaging the democratic process, did address the committee on March 31 repeating the Greens policy to ban all donations from corporations and other organisations, cap donations from individuals, and impose limits on election expenditure.
All speakers at the forum agreed there was need for electoral funding reform, and that developers and the Australian Hotels Association wielded undue influence.
And while all wanted to change the status quo, not everyone agreed with Premier Morris Iemma’s proposal to ban political donations. Some wanted a cap on election spending with regular transparent disclosure of funding and expenditure, and one argued for anonymous donations pooled to benefit all candidates equally.
Three speakers voiced concern at the capacity of the Election Funding Authority (EFA) to cope with its mandate and some wanted a public education campaign to raise awareness of the political and electoral processes.
Ricky Leong, the only speaker who at 17 was below voting age, spoke in favour of a spending cap, saying it would decrease the value of money in campaigns and increase grass roots campaigning.
‘Cutting political spending also has the advantage of being relatively easy to regulate and enforce compared to donation limits,’ he said. ‘The decisions made now will really affect my generation in 20 years. By reforming donation laws now we can get better politicians and services in the medium term.’
A member of the Ryde Youth Council and the NSW Youth Parliament, Leong said he became involved to ‘show the government that youth actually care about what is happening now and really want a change – not necessarily in government, but in governance.’
Several speakers suggested Australia should follow the Canadian system, which in recent reforms reduced individual donations to C$1100 (A$1158) per year for registered political parties, and C$1100 per election for independent candidates.
The recently flagged reforms of both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier Iemma had general support. Mr Rudd has promised to reduce the threshold at which donations must be declared to $1500, reversing the Howard government’s lifting of the threshold to $10,000. He also wants a ban on all overseas donations.
Following the Wollongong scandal, Mr Iemma wants to ban all donations, including those from unions and companies, and move to a publicly funded system for both state and local elections. According to Mr Nile, the two major parties now spend more than $65 million during elections, well beyond the $11 million allocated in public funding.
The hearings concluded on April 11 and the committee’s final report is due June 26.
