GREENS WIN PROMISE FOR STATE DONATION REFORM BY NEXT ELECTION

The Tasmanian Greens welcomed today’s breakthrough commitment from the Attorney General Brian Wightman MP for the introduction this year of legislation to establish state-based political donation laws, and a cap on election expenditure.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said the Greens stood ready to work with Labor to deliver a comprehensive suite of reforms that increased the transparency of political campaign funding.

“Tasmania is one of the few remaining states without separate state-based political donations disclosure laws, and we were concerned that Labor might be dragging its feet on promised action,” Mr McKim said.

“Thanks to years of campaigning to reform political donations in the State, and thanks partly to our power-sharing role in Parliament, we now have a firm commitment to real reform.”

“For too long, political parties have used loopholes in the existing disclosure laws to keep the details of their political donations a secret.”

“The current federal disclosure requirements do not give voters the full story, because the reporting threshold of $11,900 allows political parties to avoid scrutiny simply by receiving multiple, smaller donations.”

“Due to the time lag in the federal system’s reporting requirements it can sometimes be up to 18 months before the donations received are disclosed publicly.”

“It’s a great outcome that we now have a commitment to real time donations disclosure so that when voters go to the polls in 2014 they will know knowing exactly who is donating money to whom, and when.”

“We will study the detail of the Attorney General’s legislation and work to improve it if necessary.”
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader Thursday, 7 March 2013