The Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform Bill 2017 was introduced by the Government in response to Labor’s push to ban foreign political donations and their corrupting influence. It was only after Labor introduced its own legislation and imposed a voluntary ban on taking foreign donations that the Government finally acted. But the Government tried to use its legislation to stifle the important advocacy work of our charities sector in a giant overreach which would have prevented churches, not-for-profits and community organisations from accepting charitable donations from foreign sources. The charities and not-for-profit sector was so alarmed by these proposed changes that they formed the Hands Off Our Charities alliance to campaign against them. With their help, Labor was successful in securing multiple amendments which stopped the Government’s attack on charities, while protecting our democracy from foreign interference.
The end result was a bill which, while requiring charities, political parties and other campaigners to adapt to new reporting requirements, meant that our democracy was protected from undue influence by foreign actors without having a chilling effect on advocacy. Labor was also successful in securing other amendments which linked public funding to campaign expenditure, preventing parties and candidates from profiting from the electoral system.
At the public hearing for this review, the Committee heard from many charities and not-for-profits who gave evidence that they’ve adapted to the new regime but were concerned about further changes which would increase red tape and take them away from their core work. In the Committee’s review of the 2019 Federal Election, Government members recommended a much lower expenditure threshold for political campaigners which would have seen an increased regulatory burden for small charities and limited their capacity to engage in political advocacy. It is pleasing that the Committee has determined that there is no good reason for making such changes.
While not in scope of this inquiry, there is further work to be done to increase transparency of our political donations system. Labor currently has two bills before the Senate – one to lower the disclosure threshold to a fixed $1,000 and the other to implement a system of real time disclosure so that voters know about the donations political parties have received within 7 days of them being made. Labor is also committed to implementing expenditure caps minimising the disproportionate influence of vested interests in our democracy. The introduction of expenditure caps will need to be considered alongside increased resources for the Australian Electoral Commission, so it has the capacity to monitor compliance and make necessary improvements to the transparency register, as well as increased public funding for candidates and parties.
Labor members of the Committee express our thanks to all of the people who took the time to make a submission to the review and to appear before the Committee at its public hearing.
Senator Carol Brown
Mr Milton Dick MP
Senator Marielle Smith
Ms Kate Thwaites MP