The Tasmanian Greens today said that the State risked being the last across the line on electoral donation reform, following the South Australian Premier Jay Wetherill’s announcement to introduce political donation reform, including publicly-funding election related activities.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP today renewed calls on the Attorney General Brian Wightman to commit to introducing state-based political donation laws in time for the next state election, saying it was a year since the public consultation process on state reforms closed.
“South Australia and Tasmania have been the laggard states when it comes to addressing the corrosive influence of political donations on democracy,” Mr McKim said.
“Now that the South Australian government has committed to pushing ahead with reform, it’s time for Mr Wightman to stop delaying and commit to having these laws in place before then next state election.”
“For the sake of our democracy, we need to have laws are in place before the election so that Tasmanians can make an informed choice about their candidates.”
“Under federal laws, only donations of $11, 900 or above need to be disclosed, which means there may be hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that the public are never made aware of.”
“Due to the time lag in reporting it can sometimes be up to 18 months before the donations received are disclosed publicly, which is why the Greens are also calling for real time online disclosure.”
“We welcomed Minster Wightman’s public consultation process into a state donations scheme, but one year since it began we have not seen a proposed reform package.”
“Reforming political donations at the state level would be straightforward and low-cost, and would bring major benefits to our democracy.”
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader Wednesday, 6 February 2013
