Sarah Herrmann, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

The Federal Government is set to follow the South Australian Government in introducing a bill to ban political donations this week.

SA’s legislation was discussed in the Upper House last week, and the government said it had secured support from the Liberal Party, minor parties and other MPs.

The bill seeks to prohibit donations to political candidates and parties, and place caps on how much they can spend.

Their administrative and campaigning costs would instead be funded by taxpayer dollars.

An opt-in scheme where a candidate or party can receive public money but be subject to expenditure limitations already exists, but the legislation would mandate this across the board.

It has been estimated to cost $20 million per four-year cycle for state government elections.

Narungga MP Fraser Ellis said, while he intends to support the bill, he was concerned about the costs which would be incurred by the taxpayer.

“I completely understand the want to remove donations from politics — if there is even a perception of influence being purchased it is an undesirable thing,” he said.

“The method to do that has evolved into an incredibly complex scheme that involves an increase in taxpayer money being expended on political campaigns.

“Personally, I am not sure that is more desirable than candidates having to privately fund or secure donations.”

However, University of South Australia Associate Professor in Law Sarah Moulds said she thought it would be money “very well spent” to prevent wealthy individuals and corporations using “cash for access” and paying their way into influence.

“It is a genuine, thoughtful effort to improve the democratic quality of our political system, and I think that there’s been a genuine and thoughtful effort to address the concerns that have been raised by experts and community members about the balance between established parties and new entrants,” she said.

“(Parties) can only spend up to a certain amount on any individual campaign or any individual candidate, and so that’s the part that’s trying to smooth out the playing field for other players.”

Under the bill, the funding would be distributed via an advanced payment system.

A candidate’s first-preference votes from the previous election would determine the funds they receive for administration and campaigning.

However, “top ups” would be available to independents and small parties, and new entrants would be able to receive donations up to a certain amount.

While Ms Moulds said the legislation would be a win for transparency, South Australia was the only jurisdiction in Australia not to provide plain English explanations about new laws and their impacts on people’s lives and rights.

The State Government aims to pass the bill by the end of the year, with the ban to take effect on July 1, 2025, prior to the state election in March 2026.

A review of the legislation would take place in 2027.

The Federal Government legislation would not be in place for the federal election next year.  

Liberals: ‘not how good reforms are made’

Shadow Attorney-General Josh Teague told the YPCT there had not been enough time to consider the proposed legislation to ban political donations.

“There remains concerns with respect to the ability of third parties, such as unions, to run campaigns worth hundreds of thousands of dollars under the proposed reforms,” he said.

“This legislation has major implications for our democratic system — we cannot understand why the Government is seeking to rush it through.

“That is not how good reforms are made.”  

This article appeared in  Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 19 November 2024.