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Do Greens and crossbenchers who claim that transparency and integrity is at the heart of their reason for entering Parliament in the first place hear themselves?<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> In the past few days they have mounted self-serving arguments <br> <br> against proposed electoral reforms that the major parties look set to come together to support.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The reforms include caps for how much money wealthy individuals can donate, caps <br> <br> on the amount candidates can spend in individual electorates to prevent the equivalent of an arms race, <br> <br> and a $90million limit on what any party can spend <br> <br> at an election - actually less than the major parties currently spend.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The proposed new laws also include lower disclosure thresholds for donations, thus <br> <br> increasing the transparency of who makes political donations in the first place.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> So the wealthy wont be able to hide behind anonymity while using their cash to influence election outcomes - and the extent <br> <br> to which they can use their wealth at all will be limited.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The bill will further improve transparency by also increasing the speed and frequency that disclosures of donations <br> <br> need to be made.<br> <br> <br> <br> At present we have the absurd situation in which donations get made - but you only find out the details of who has <br> <br> given what to whom many months later, well after elections <br> <br> are won and lost.<br> <br> <br> <br> In other words, what is broadly being proposed will result in much greater transparency and far less big money being injected into <br> <br> campaigning by the wealthy.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Teal Kylea Tink claimed the major parties were 'running scared' with the policy and warned the reform would 'not stop <br> <br> the rot' <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Greens senate leader Larissa Waters (left) fired a warning shot <br> <br> - saying if it serves only the major parties 'it's a rort, not reform'. Teal independent ACT senator David <br> <br> Pocock (right) said: 'What seems to be happening is a major-party stitch-up'<br> <br> <br> <br> Anyone donating more than $1,000 to a political party, as opposed to $16,000 under the current rules, will need to disclose having done so.<br> <br> And how much they can donate will be capped.<br> <br> <br> <br> Yet the Greens and Teals have quickly condemned the proposed new laws, labeling them a 'stitch-up', 'outrageous' and 'a <br> <br> rort, not a reform'. <br> <br> <br> <br> They have lost their collective minds after finding out that <br> <br> Labor's proposal just might secure the support of the opposition.<br> <br> <br> <br> <i><u>I had to double check who was criticising what exactly before even starting to write this column.</u></i><br> <br> <br> <br> Because I had assumed - incorrectly - that these important transparency measures stamping out the influence of the wealthy <br> <br> must have been proposed by the virtue-signalling Greens or the corruption-fighting Teals, in a united crossbench effort <br> <br> to drag the major parties closer to accountability.<br> <br> <br> <br> <b>More fool me.</b><br> <br> <br> <br> The bill, designed to clean up a rotten system, is being put forward by Labor and <br> <br> is opposed by a growing cabal of crossbenchers.<br> <br> <br> <br> It makes you wonder what they have to hide. Put simply, the Greens and Teals <br> <br> doth protest too much on this issue.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <u>Labor is thought to be trying to muscle out major political donors such as Clive Palmer</u><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <b>Another potential target of the laws is businessman and Teal funder Simon Holmes à Court</b><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Greens have taken massive donations in the past, contrary to their irregular calls to <br> <br> tighten donations rules (Greens leader Adam Bandt and <br> <br> Senator Mehreen Faruqi are pictured)<br> <br> <br> <br> The major parties have long complained about the influence the likes of Simon Holmes à Court wields behind the scenes amongst the Teals. <br> <br> <br> <br> And we know the Greens have taken massive donations from the wealthy <br> <br> in the past, contrary to their irregular calls to tighten donations rules.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Now that tangible change has been proposed, these bastions of virtue are running a mile from reforms that <br> <br> will curtail dark art of political donations.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Labor government isn't even seeking for these transparency rules to <br> <br> take effect immediately, by the way. It won't be some sort of <br> <br> quick-paced power play before the next election designed <br> <br> to catch the crossbench out.<br> <br> <br> <br> They are aiming for implementation by 2026,<br> <br> giving everyone enough time to absorb and understand the changes before preparing for them.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Don't get me wrong, no deal has yet been done between Labor and the Coalition. I imagine the <br> <br> opposition want to go over the laws with a fine tooth <br> <br> comb.<br> <br> <br> <br> As they should - because it certainly isn't beyond Labor to include hidden one-party advantages in the proposed design which would create loopholes only the unions <br> <br> are capable of taking advantage of, therefore disadvantaging the Coalition electorally in the years to come.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> But short of such baked-in trickiness scuttling a deal to get these proposed laws <br> <br> implemented, the crossbench should offer their support, not cynical opposition, to what is being advocated for.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <u><b>They might even be able to offer something worthwhile that could be incorporated in the package.</b></u><br> <br> <br> <br> To not do so exposes their utter hypocrisy and blowhard false commentary about being <br> <br> in politics to 'clean things up'.<br> <br> <br> <br> Here is my web-site :: <a href="https://wiki.iitp.ac.in/w/index.php/Top_Ten_Quotes_On_%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A5%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%89%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99">ดอกไม้งานศพ</a>
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