Media release – Sarah Lovell MLC, Leader of Opposition Business in the Legislative Council, 19 October 2023
Robust donation reform needed in Tasmania
Tasmanians deserve to be able to trust that politicians are making decisions in the best interests of the community.
But as long as Tasmania has no laws governing political donations, Tasmanian politics will never truly have the level of transparency that we and the community rightly demand.
Labor has been fighting for the introduction of a strong framework to govern Tasmania’s political donations laws for more than five years.
The reforms in the Government’s bill that have finally come up for debate today do not go far enough – but only go as far as we can expect with the Liberals in charge.
We understand that there is very little appetite remaining in the Liberal Government to progress any reform whatsoever, which been evident from the lack of progress of the bill.
This was also confirmed in the former Attorney General Elise Archer’s statement that she was unsupported by her caucus to progress these reforms. Without Ms Archer in the caucus room there is little if any commitment to progress.
It is now clear to us that any amendments to the current bill will not be progressed back to the House of Assembly by this Government and will only lead to yet another election with no disclosure regime whatsoever.
For this reason, we will not be moving the amendments we had previously foreshadowed, and we will not be supporting any amendments today.
Instead, we will be introducing a private members bill to progress our amendments at the earliest possible opportunity.
We remain entirely committed to the reforms covered in the amendments we circulated and our policy position has not changed.
Labor remains committed to further reform, and will create an opportunity as soon as we can for us to debate measures to take the reforms even further.
But most likely, it will be up to a Labor Government to deliver the reforms required for all Tasmanians to have faith in the political process.
Media release – TasCOSS, 20 October 2023
Lost opportunity for meaningful political donations reform
TasCOSS is deeply disappointed at Labor’s decision to join the Government in walking away from meaningful political donations reform, turning their back on key amendments which would have strengthened the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Bill and improved transparency and accountability in politics.
TasCOSS CEO, Ms Adrienne Picone, said Tasmania has the weakest political donations laws in the country.
“TasCOSS and organisations across the community services industry were widely consulted on key amendments which would have improved the Bill, such as lowering the disclosure threshold to $1,000, capping expenditure at elections, and increased frequency of disclosure,” Ms Picone said.
“Such amendments would have made the Bill consistent with donation laws in other jurisdictions and given Tasmanians some confidence they know who is potentially influencing the decisions our politicians make.
“Instead, what we’ve witnessed is the major parties teaming up to vote against the public’s right to know. And without laws which address truth in political advertising, in Tasmania it remains perfectly legal for political parties and candidates to mislead voters during an election campaign.
“Trust in political institutions is on the decline and this is just another example of the major parties joining forces to serve their self-interest at the expense of transparency. Ultimately, it is Tasmanians who lose out.”
