My Private Members Bill – Restoring Trust - Jul 2023
In September, I’ll introduce my first Private Member’s Bill, the ‘Electoral Legislation Amendment (Restoring Trust) Bill. I’ve developed it in response to the evidence given to the parliamentary Committee on Electoral Matters’ Inquiry into last year’s election.
Private Member’s Bills rarely become law but can make an impact. They can change the conversation, present possible solutions to problems, and parts of them can be replicated in future legislation.
My Bill has three goals:
level the playing field in elections for new political candidates
Improve the transparency of political donations
Reduce the ability of political donors to buy influence
This isn’t a Bill that you’re likely to see from a major party – donation laws have evolved over time to favour them. That’s unsurprising when the people who benefit from these laws are the ones making them.
Levelling the playing field means making politics more accessible for everyone. Only 0.4 per cent of Australians are members of a major party, but that’s where majority of politicians come from. I have identified 13 party advantages and five incumbency advantages which create barries for new candidates.
Transparency in political donation is a great place to start for fairer elections. Currently, you don’t know who donated to candidates until 10 months after you vote! And even then, you only find out about a fraction of donations – three quarters of major party private funding is hidden. My Bill proposes solutions to this, including real-time disclosure of all donations over $1,000 (it’s currently $15,200!). I took this approach at the last election. It wasn’t hard.
Australians are worried that big money has too much influence on politics. Some donations just shouldn’t be allowed. My Bill will propose banning donations from government contractors, like most OECD countries do. In the last two years PWC has donated $492,000 and received government contracts worth more than $500 million!
I also propose banning donations from social harm industries like gambling and tobacco.
The Government will propose its own electoral reform package in response to the Committee Inquiry. The big question is whether their package makes elections fairer or embeds the two-party system.
My Bill will show that it is possible to make elections fairer and transparent. It is then up to communities to make it clear to Government that is what they want. (You can read more about the Restoring Trust Bill here.)
Related article: Will the Albanese government embed a dark money duopoly or restore trust with Australians? (1 Feb 2024)
