Major Parties Snub Survey On Integrity & Transparency

A survey from the Tasmanian Constitution Society was sent to 151 candidates to assess the commitment of candidates running in the upcoming election to issues of integrity, accountability, and transparency in politics.

The seven questions were designed to determine if candidates would support specific reforms, such as improving the powers of the Integrity Commission, legislating a code of conduct for lobbyists and increasing transparency regarding ministers’ diaries and political donations.

Major Parties Snub Survey on Integrity & Transparency 3

Media release – Tasmanian Constitution Society, 14 July 2025

Integrity – candidates don’t care

Only 12 of 151 candidates seeking election next Saturday responded to a Tasmanian Constitution Society survey about integrity in politics.

Of the 161 candidates seeking election, the TCS could not find email addresses for 10 of them. Of the 151 emails sent, 20 bounced.

All 12 candidates who responded were independents, including former Liberal government minister Elise Archer. All respondents supported initiatives that included:

Improving the Integrity Commission’s powers and resources

· Legislating the Commission’s code of conduct for lobbyists

· Further improving the political party donations laws

· Monthly publication and meaningful detail of ministers’ diaries.

No Labor, Liberal or Green party candidates responded to the seven-question survey.

“Accountability, integrity and democracy underpin our system of government,” said TCS president Neil Spark.

“By not responding to our survey, and similar ones by other community organisations, the major parties show contempt for those they seek to represent and whose lives they say they want to improve.

“When integrity is undermined, our system of government is undermined, and people lose faith in it. Democracy is fragile which is why we must do all we can to strengthen it and why it is disappointing most candidates did not answer seven simple questions about it.”

About the survey

Candidates were emailed a link to the survey on Sunday, 6 July. It closed at noon on Friday 11 July.

The questions:

1. If elected, what’s your number one priority in the next parliament?

2. If elected, will you introduce a bill, or vote for a bill, that gives effect to the Integrity Commission’s code of conduct for lobbyists?

3. Do you support the mandatory monthly publication of ministers’ diaries that include portfolio-related meetings and events, including date, attendees, purpose, all meetings with lobbyists? If elected, what action will you take to bring this about?

4. Do you support an independent review of the Integrity Commission’s functions, human and financial resources and powers with a view to increasing them? If elected, what action will you take to bring this about?

5. Do you support an independent review of the Integrity Commission’s functions, human and financial resources and powers with a view to increasing them? If elected, what action will you take to bring this about?

6. Do you support improving the Right To Information processes to ensure responses are made within the mandated 20 days and to support the implementation of the Environmental Defenders Office recommendations to improve RTI? If elected, what action will you take to bring this about?

7. If elected, will you vote to support the continuation of the House of Assembly Standing Orders that prohibit government members asking ministers questions in Question Time and place time limits on questions and answers?

The candidates responses are here.

The Tasmanian Constitution Society (TCS) was founded in March 2010 with the primary goal of promoting good governance and restoring the House of Assembly to 35 seats. Having achieved this initial objective, the TCS now focuses on its ongoing mission to strengthen democracy by keeping elected officials accountable and transparent.

The society works to achieve this by identifying and publicising key reforms, supporting actions that increase government transparency and invigorating public discussion on good governance through forums and informational papers.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

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