Media Release – Political Donation Reform

October 2021

Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb today called for Tasmania to make meaningful political donation reform – including prohibiting gaming and liquor, tobacco, firearms and property development entities from donation.

Ms Webb said Tasmanians have waited decades for the establishment of a world-class and modern state-based political donations and election finance regulation system.

“For too long, Tasmania’s political donation system was the most secretive and least regulated in Australia, reliant upon dated and inadequate Commonwealth disclosure laws,” Ms Webb said.

“I am calling on Tasmania to settle for nothing short of nation-leading, gold-standard donation reform.

“Donation disclosure threshold must be set at $1000. Public reporting of donations must be genuinely real-time. We must prohibit political donations from those sectors that may seek to influence policy outcomes for financial gain.

“In NSW, property developers and gaming and liquor interests are banned from donation. In Queensland and the ACT, property developers are banned.

“A ban on specific sectors making political donations is crucial to limit actual and perceived undue influence on the integrity of democratic elections and governance.

“We could lead the nation by introducing these reforms that are much-needed and will deliver ground-breaking transparency for our State.”

Ms Webb has made Submission to the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Bill 2021 Exposure Draft.

“My submission focuses on assessing how well the exposure draft delivers against key principles, including:

• protecting the integrity of democratic elections and representative government
• promoting fairness and transparency in politics
• timely and transparent political donation disclosures
• applying rigorous limitations on undue influence of donors and vested corporate interests
• regulating third parties’ involvement

“I would contend that the government’s draft bill falls well short and Tasmania should aim to not just match, but improve on the protections in place in other States, including:

• Election donations disclosures threshold of $1000
• Timely donation disclosures requirements that ensure all election donations are publicly disclosed by polling day
• Caps on election expenditure, and donations
• Bans on corporate donations from specific sectors

Ms Webb has made seven Recommendations in her Submission.

In order to fully meet Tasmanians’ expectation for a fair and transparent political donations disclosure regime, the exposure draft Bill needs to be amended to:

RECOMMENDATION 1:

• Define a ‘reportable political donation’ to be a donation of $1, 000 or more (aggregated).

RECOMMENDATION 2:

1. a) Require all ‘reportable election donations’ to be publicly disclosed by polling day;
2. b) Provide for more immediate ‘reportable election donations’ disclosure requirements for submission to the Commission; and
3. c) Provide for more immediate time limits for the ‘reportable election donations’ disclosure publication by the Commission, which must occur before polling day.

RECOMMENDATION 3: 

1. a) Provide for more timely election campaign expenditure disclosure requirements for submission to the Commission; and
2. b) Provide for more timely election campaign expenditure disclosure publication by the Commission.

RECOMMENDATION 4: 

1. a) Provide for appropriate Assembly election campaign expenditure caps imposed on all registered political parties, independent candidates, associated entities and third parties; and
2. b) Provide an aggregated cap on the total amount of election donations to be received by any one donor individual or organisation to any registered political party or candidate during an election cycle.

RECOMMENDATION 5: 

• Prohibit the use and receipt of political donations from property developers, tobacco, liquor and gaming, and firearm entities.

RECOMMENDATION 6: 

1. a) Prohibit all anonymous donations to registered political parties, candidates and associated entities.
2. b) Require the name and address of all political and electoral donors, not only those making ‘reportable donations’, be collected and retained by registered political parties, candidates and associated entities.
3. c) Require that the aggregate total of non-reportable political and electoral donations received by registered political parties, candidates and associated entities be publicly reported.

RECOMMENDATION 7: 

• Include required election campaign expenditure caps as part of the proposed new public funding of election campaigns.

RECOMMENDATION 8: 

1. a) Further analysis and consideration regarding the exclusion of the Legislative Council from the proposed public funding provisions;
2. b) Further examination of other national jurisdictions public funding models which provide public funding assistance to new and emerging parties, in order to promote political diversity, and/or public policy development.

Allowable Donation Restrictions and Thresholds Interjurisdictional comparison

View Meg’s full submission here