Former Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley, who has raised millions of dollars to fund Liberal election campaigns, has called for a complete ban on political donations by big business, trade unions and property developers.
Yabsley told The Power Index in a video interview, “Political donations from entities across the board — companies, business associations, trade unions, etc — should be abolished, end of story”.
“The only donations that should be allowed should be from real people, Australian citizens. And those donations should be capped by legislation at a modest amount … maybe $500.”
Yabsley has urged the NSW Liberal premier, Barry O’Farrell, to “lead by example” in enacting such a ban. In an email sent to Peta Seaton, the premier’s cabinet chief, Yabsley cautioned that political scandals may otherwise force the change.
“It is an accident waiting to happen,” he warned.
“I am not contending here that there is wholesale political corruption based on the payment of money, or even that political donations provide some cheap and easy way to get a result from government,” Yabsley’s email continued. “Suffice to say there are perceptions, and occasional realities that … call into question the integrity of public policy and decision making.”
“I think it fails the smell test,” he told The Power Index more bluntly.
Yabsley, who stepped down as party treasurer after last year’s election, is arguably the most successful political fund-raiser in Australian history. In 1999, he set up the Millenium Forum, which raises millions of dollars by selling access to Liberal leaders. In 2007 he used the same model to establish the Wentworth Forum, which has raised millions of dollars for Malcolm Turnbull’s campaigns.
One of the Millenium Forum’s most successful events is its monthly boardroom lunches hosted by the big accounting firm, Deloitte, (which has contributed $909,000 to the Liberal Party since 1999). These are reserved exclusively for “sponsors” and “feature key members of the federal and state Liberal teams” such as Joe Hockey, Andrew Robb and NSW Treasurer Mike Baird.
One of the biggest sponsors of the Millenium Forum is Clubs NSW, which received special treatment in the NSW government’s recent crackdown on alcohol-related violence.
The cost of Millenium Forum sponsorship packages is not published, but the Wentworth Forum offers different levels of access to Malcolm Turnbull, depending on whether you’re a member ($5000), sponsor ($11,000), patron ($16,500), benefactor ($25,500) or governor ($55,000).
Donors to the Wentworth Forum have included Westfield billionaire Frank Lowy and property developer Harry Triguboff.
So how does Yabsley explain his sudden distaste for such donations?
“I’ve always felt somewhat queasy about the whole process,” he told The Power Index, “As I have gone through more than three decades of political funding I have always worried about the perception [of it]”.
If big donations are banned, taxpayers will have to fund the parties’ election campaigns. But Yabsley is adamant that spending should be cut back. “I actually believe that the money and the messaging involved is pretty unseemly. I think it’s out of control. We’re not selling soap powder, we’re not selling pet food. This actually goes to a fundamental question of the integrity of government.
“Whether it was the Bank NSW giving £250,000 to the Liberal Party in 1961, or a business person giving $20,000 to the Liberal Party or the National Party or the Labor Party or the Greens … let’s not pretend this is confined to one party, this is across the board.”
funny how politicians only grow a brain when they retire from politics…. except for richo
What crap. Taxpyers should refuse to touch this idea. We’d end up with an hermetically sealed bureacracy of self-interested plastic pollies, living off taxpayers in a world divorced from community.
Pollies need to attract members and supporters. To raise their own money. To be connected.
Does anybody have at their fingertips the current membership numbers of the main parties? I have in mind something like figures, decade by decade from 1950 to 2010, for Libs, Country/Nats, Labor, Greens.
I’m pretty sure that there has been a huge winding back of membership across the board, with the possible exception of the Greens, as parties have come to rely on handouts from government based on election results, rather than broadening and deepening their own membership bases.
Guess what? We now have parties without membership but which still claim to represent Australians. Go figure.
By all means, get the parties off the handouts from business and the unions, but at the same time, stop them from dipping into public coffers and selling access via Board Room Luncheons or similar devices.
Wake me up when the job is done, because until that day arrives, political discussion in this country will stay just as stultified, predictable and remote from reality as it is at present.
Labor historian and ex-NSW Minister for Education, Rodney Cavalier was dead right in the message in his recent book Power Crisis, especially his observation that parties and factions have evolved into executive placement agencies for mates and hangers-on, or words to that effect. The sooner, the better, in my opinion.
Just stating the obvious but surely a donation is not made in a vacuum and favourable treatment at the expense of others has to be the objective of any donation. Clubs NSW is just one shining example of the corruption of the democratic process.
interesting idea. don’t think similar rules have worked in the US, though i’m not aware of the specifics over there.
one question if a reform like this ever got up (and we’re in pretty hypothetical territory right there) is — how would you counter private advertising campaigns as per the anti-mining/carbon tax, which would be bound to increase if groups lost their power to throw money directly at politicians.