Federation Chamber
Tuesday 1 September 2020
As a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, I rise to speak this afternoon on the advisory report on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2020. This is an important piece of work that the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has undertaken. I believe this is one of the most important joint committees in the parliament, as this is the committee that oversees our democracy, the Electoral Commission and how we conduct elections in this country. We've seen over the years an erosion of some of our democratic institutions. The work of the committee is really about ensuring that those institutions are respected, making practical and enhanced decisions to improve the democratic processes to make sure not only every voice is heard but every vote is counted, and having as many people participating in our democracy as possible.
I state from the outset that Labor members of the committee support the passage of the bill, but we've provided amendments to make sure that there is certainty for election participants and, more importantly, to provide greater political transparency when it comes to donations, and I'll unpack that a little bit in my speech today. The Commonwealth Electoral Act cannot be undervalued. It's vital that the act is constantly under review to ensure that it's fulfilling its vital role in regulating our nation's democracy. Labor's firm view is that all changes to the electoral law should be made only in a consultative and bipartisan manner and should never be rushed through or politicised.
The bill that the JSCEM inquiry advisory report looked at seeks to amend two sections—and I will go through each of those: sections 302CA and 314B of the Commonwealth Electoral Act—in order to clarify the interaction between federal, state and territory electoral funding and disclosure regimes after the High Court in the Spence case found section 302CA to be invalid. The amendments seek to ensure that state and territory laws cannot restrict the ability of donors to donate for federal purposes and of parties to spend those donations for federal purposes. Simply, Australians deserve to see who has given the money to which political party. They deserve to see that level of transparency.
The bill also makes a series of technical amendments that stem from recommendations of the JSCEM inquiry into the 2016 election. They are based on recommendations of the Australian Electoral Commission. I give special thanks to the former Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, the now defence minister, Senator Linda Reynolds. She showed that bipartisanship is truly the key to making sure that we get democracy right in this country.
I'll deal with section 302CA, which allows donations from any class of donor—even if at a state level they are not a permitted donor—as long as the donations are expressly given and used for federal purposes. So you couldn't raise money federally and then siphon it into a state campaign or use it for a purpose for which that funding was not allocated.
The amendment to section 314B would mean that donations to a federally registered party that are above a state's threshold for disclosure—for example, $1,000 in my home state of Queensland—but below the federal threshold, which is currently $14,300, if you can believe it, would not need to be disclosed to the state electoral commission if they were expressly given and used for a federal purpose. So once again it's making sure the money is used for the purpose that it was donated for.
Many submissions in the JSCEM inquiry expressed concerns about these amendments and argued for comprehensive donation reform at the federal level, which I will also touch upon in my report today. The report goes on to state that Labor is proud to have continually fought for donation reforms. At the 2016 election, under the leadership of Bill Shorten, Labor committed to introducing a ban on foreign donations and to linking public funding to campaign expenditure, preventing candidates and parties from profiting from the electoral system. I'm delighted to say that, from opposition, Labor lead that debate and we saw those reforms put in place—well overdue but important, as I said in my opening remarks, for the health of our democracy in this country.
We'll always defend the right to have accountability and transparency in our electoral system. In 2019 we introduced two bills committed to strengthening our electoral system and protecting democracy. These measures included lowering the disclosure threshold for political donations to $1,000 and making sure that disclosure of a donation is made within seven days of the donation. I want to particularly thank my colleague and friend Senator Don Farrell, Labor's shadow minister, who really has been like a dog with a bone with this issue in ensuring that we have some of the highest standards when it comes to electoral threshold donations but also electoral transparency. I know that Senator Farrell will continue to lead this fight. I pay particular thanks to him and his staff not only for all the work they have done in preparing Labor's dissenting report that I'm speaking on today but also for the ongoing negotiations that they've been conducting in the Senate.
We introduced those two bills to further deliver on Labor's longstanding commitments. The first of those bills was the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Transparency Measures—Lowering the Disclosure Threshold) Bill 2019—a critical bill, lowering the current amount from $14,300 to $1,000. Don't forget that it was Labor, under former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who introduced the first donation disclosure scheme. Prior to that, there were no disclosures and you could do whatever you wanted. It was a bit like the Wild West. Labor brought in these reforms, and has a proud of record. We saw those rules change under the coalition, right up to 2006, to hide who was giving them money—including raising that threshold to $10,000, linked to the CPI; hence why we're over the $14,000 limit.
The other bill, the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Transparency Measures—Real Time Disclosure) Bill would require people to disclose political donations within seven days. Under the current system, annual returns are not published until the first working day in February—meaning that it could be up to 19 months before voters know who has made a donation. That is not healthy for democracy. That is not an open and transparent system. Yet those opposite continue to stand by those rules. I do not and members of the Labor Party do not, and neither do the Australian public.
One example we saw of this loophole being exploited was the $1.75 million donation that Malcolm Turnbull made. He didn't say at the election, 'I'm making that donation;' he hid it from the Australian public. If any MP wants to give money to their own campaign and make a donation, I say, 'Good on you; that's fine, but just be up-front with voters about it.' Why hide it? Why hide it until 19 months after the fact? I'm sure that if you ask any Australian, they will say, 'Yes, political donations should be in real-time, there should be transparency and there should be limits put in place.'
With today's report we've had to clarify a number of important relationships between federal, state and territory governments. There have been a number of concerns about this. That's why Labor members recommended an amendment to delay the bill's commencement date until the Queensland state election is held on 31 October 2020—something I strongly support. This will enable parties and candidates in Queensland as well as the QEC to operate under the existing rules for their upcoming election. We also recommended an amendment that would require parties to maintain a dedicated federal campaign account—so getting away from the fact that you could donate and not see what that the money was genuinely being used for. To further strengthen the electoral system, we've also recommended that the current donation threshold be reduced, as I've said, to $1,000, and that there be a system of real-time disclosure introduced.
We believe that it is important to have an open and transparent process when it comes to making donations in this country. The perception of the political class in this nation, as seen through the eyes of the public, is, I would say, at an all-time low. We're seeing a government avoiding scrutiny. We're seeing a Prime Minister ducking and weaving. We're seeing the government over and over again making big announcements and not following through. We've got to get this right. We've got to make sure that our donation laws are in line with best practice in the world. With the coalition dragging its feet, it's not good enough. That's why I'm really pleased that today's report has made some technical amendments and has also strengthened the legislation to ensure that we do have an open and transparent process when it comes to political donations in this country.
Finally, we must ensure that the Electoral Commission, our independent regulator, is properly funded to carry out their role. We've seen cuts across the board to the AEC. I want to make sure that, when we have elections, that the people who conduct those elections do it in a fair and transparent way and that they have the resources to ensure that we have the best elections in the world.
