Time to open up on party political donations 

Editorial | The Mercury | 2 Feb 2022

TASMANIAN political leaders Jeremy Rockliff and Rebecca White need to lift their games when it comes to transparency around political donations.

On Wednesday the Australian Electoral Commission published annual financial disclosure returns for 2021-22 with the two top political parties revealing only a small portion of the donations received.

That’s because current laws require political parties to only declare contributions over $14,500.

That means the vast majority of funding is kept secret.

To break it down the $629,168 declared by the Tasmanian Liberals was less than one fifth of the $3.81m received by the party in 2021-22.

The story wasn’t much different in the Labor camp with almost 90 per cent of Labor’s $1.09m in receipts undeclared.

On the upside the Tasmanian Greens declare all donations voluntarily giving voters a better understanding of where their money has come from.

It also gives voters an understanding where any vested interests may lie. Greens leader Cassy O’Connor was right when she said it was unacceptable the Liberal and Labor parties declared so little of their income.

“There might not yet be laws forcing the Liberals and Labor to do better, but there is nothing stopping either party from making voluntary disclosures – like the Greens do,” Ms O’Connor said.

Independent Nelson MLC Meg Webb said she wanted to see change too. But the major parties are waiting on a change of the laws before acting, saying they are willing to comply when the laws are changed.

But like Ms O’Connor explained there is nothing stopping both major parties from doing that now – as the Greens do. Transparency in government at all levels is an important part of Australia’s democracy and both major party leaders need to get on the front foot to show voters they take the issue seriously.