Liberals urged to close donation loop hole

Today’s AEC donation returns highlight the urgent need for electoral donation reform.

The Liberal Party received $4.2 million in receipts and donations before the 2014 election, of which $3.6 million was donated anonymously.

Labor Leader Bryan Green has urged the Government to revisit electoral reform, including closing a serious loophole in donation laws.

The Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch) has received official advice from the Australian Electoral Commission that donations made to individual candidates endorsed by political parties do not fall within the scope of current Commonwealth electoral disclosure laws.

The advice states:

“Normally an endorsed candidate would be considered to be an agent of the endorsing party when involved in an election campaign, especially when operating through a campaign committee. However, the circumstances in a Tasmanian State election are somewhat different given the operation of the Hare Clark electoral system.

“… campaign transactions of these State candidates could not be said to have been received ‘by, or on behalf of, the party’ and therefore, would not fall within the scope of s.314AB (2) of the Act.”

Notwithstanding this ruling, the Labor Party chose to continue its standard practice of declaring donations made to endorsed candidates at the last election.

Mr Green said he had written to Liberal Premier Will Hodgman urging him to address the issue through state based disclosure laws.

“It is not good enough for the Premier to push this matter off to the Legislative Council – a serious deficiency exists and the Government has an obligation to fix it,” Mr Green said.

Mr Green said the Government should revisit the suite of electoral reforms introduced by Labor in 2013 which were inexplicably opposed by the Liberals and blocked by the Upper House.

“The reforms proposed in the Bill would address the concerns identified by the AEC and improve the transparency of our electoral system overall.

“If this issue is not addressed it would mean that candidates could effectively receive unlimited donations with absolutely no obligation for disclosure.

“There have also been recent calls for local government candidates to disclose donations, which is a matter that could also be addressed in the Government’s response.

“The Government must act to ensure that Tasmanians can continue to have confidence in the transparency and integrity of our electoral system.”
Bryan Green MP Labor Leader