Follow the money, they say. Well, we did our level best to discover who’s funding the upcoming federal election campaign; Cathy Alexander’s investigation for The Power Index is an illuminating account of behind-the-scenes fundraising activities and who’s holding the bag.
But there’s only so much we can tell you. Come back to us in 2015, when the Australian Electoral Commission can finally reveal the receipts.
We’ve banged on about this plenty of times in the past. And as Bernard Keane reports today, there is some move to reform the process: Labor’s long-awaited legislation bans foreign donations and introduces additional reporting obligations for donations over $100,000.
But the watered-down bill also ups the original reporting threshold, prohibits donation-splitting between branches (potentially allowing donations above the threshold to be unreported), allows donors more time to report and allows anonymous donations up to $1000 (rather than $50).
And we’ll still have to wait up to nine months until after an election to find out who donated to the parties. That’s better than 18, but as a demonstration of transparency it still stinks.
There’s an election coming – invest in “Consolidated Paper Bags”.
The essence of democracy is that voters are fully informed. There is no justification for the non disclosure of all donations, individual and corporate received by parties and individuals. Technically it is possible to put every name and every amount on public record within 24 hours of being received.
Maybe “the Chinese” will steal that information before they can disclose it?